Training in Enterprises

Annex G. Topic guide employee representative

Interviewer notes

• Outline the aims of the study and purpose of the interview.

• Inform the interviewee of the likely duration.

• Provide a brief overview of the scope of the issues the discussion will be looking to explore.

• Request permission to record the interview.

• Outline the treatment of data gathered and the approach to confidentiality.

• Gain explicit consent for the interview and its recording based on this.

• Check if the interviewee has any questions prior to commencing the discussion.

• Ensure that the interview is tailored to the interviewee and firm type.

• Feel free to change the order of the questions, as long as all questions are covered.

Part 1 – About the interviewee

I would like to start with asking a few questions about yourself.

1. Can you please describe your current role in [enterprise/establishment], in particular your role as employee representative?

Prompt:

• time in post, time in company

• current remit, area of responsibility

• previous roles

2. Do you formally represent employees? If so, in what way?

Prompt:

• Member of trade union

• Member of works council

• Employee delegate

• Other

  Probe:

• How have you been chosen to represent employees in a formal process?

3. What is your own attitude towards learning throughout your life?

Prompt:

• Why do you think it is important to keep you skills up-to-date?

• How do you keep your skills up-to-date?

• Do you take part in courses, seminars or workshops for learning purposes? When was the last time you took part in any of them?

Part 2 – About the enterprise

I would now like to ask you some general questions about your [enterprise/establishment].

4. How is dialogue between employees and management organised?

Probe:

• Existence of works council and/or trade union

• Forms of interaction between management and employee representatives

• Opportunities for direct interaction between individual employees and management

5. To what extent does your enterprise provide training opportunities to its employees??

Probe:

• What share of employees take part in training in a given year?

• How many days does a typical employee take part in training?

  [If Q02=yes]

6. What role does the issue of training play in negotiations between management and employee representatives?

Part 3 – Processes and structures

I would now like to get a better understanding how training is organised in your [enterprise/establishment] and the role of employee representation in this.

7. Consider a hypothetical employee in your [enterprise/establishment]. Can you describe how they would access training?

Prompts:

• How does the [enterprise/establishment] assess if the employee needs or wants training?

• How does the employee find out about the different training opportunities on offer?

• Who decides if the employee is being offered training?

• Is training participation voluntary for the employee?

• What role do employee representatives play in this?

  [If Q02=yes]

8. Does your [enterprise/establishment] have a workforce strategy, i.e. a plan for hiring, developing and motivating staff, as well as for utilising their skills?

Probe:

• Are employee representatives involved in the development of the strategy?

• What is their level of involvement (advisory vs. decision-making)?

• Beyond this, are any employees directly involved in the development of the strategy?

9. What is the role of employee representatives in planning training in your enterprise?

Probe:

• Do trade unions develop their own training offer?

• Are you involved in the development of training programmes provided by the firm?

• Are you involved in the selection of training providers?

• Are you involved in the selection of training participants?

Part 4 – Reasons for (not) providing training

I would now like to ask some questions around why your [enterprise/establishment] is providing training and what it is hoping to get out of it.

10. In your view, what are the benefits of providing training from the perspective of the enterprise?

Probe:

• Do you think the enterprise benefits from providing training to all employees to an equal extent?

• Do you think the enterprise benefits from all types of training to an equal extent?

11. In your view, how do employees benefit from the training that is provided?

Probe:

• Are there different benefits for different employees and/ or different types of training?

12. In your view, would your [enterprise/establishment] benefit from providing more training to its employees? If yes, what are the obstacles to providing more training?

Prompt:

• Limited time for certain staff to participate in training

• Difficult to assess skill needs of different employees

• Difficult to find time to organise training internally

• Training is too expensive

• Difficult to find suitable courses offered by external providers

Part 5 – The learning environment

I will now ask some questions to understand how other organisational features of your [enterprise/ establishment] help or incentivise employees to learn in their day-to-day work.

13. In your view, what share of employees plan their work autonomously and flexibly?

Probe:

• What share can decide how or when to best fulfil their tasks?

• What share works together in autonomous teams, i.e. teams in which members decide on the allocation of tasks and choose a team leader?

14. In your [enterprise/establishment], what happens if an employee makes a mistake?

Probe:

• Mistakes should be avoided at all costs;

• Mistakes are discussed with the supervisor and corrected;

• Employees are encouraged to find their own way of executing tasks, mistakes happen and are used as an opportunity to learn.

  Prompt:

• Does your approach to dealing with mistakes differ for different groups of employees?

15. How is the performance of employees assessed?

Prompt:

• Is there a formal performance management system?

• Can you describe it in more details (frequency, format)?

• Does the performance assessment directly affect

  • employee level of pay,

  • prospects for promotion and/or training opportunities

16. In what other ways do employees have opportunities to learn in their day-to-day work besides training?

Prompt:

• Frequent assignment of new tasks or formal job-rotation

• Exposure to unfamiliar problems

• Pairing with more experienced employees

• Opportunities for learning by observing colleagues

• Opportunities for information sharing amongst colleagues

  Probe:

• How formalised are these opportunities?

17. Are there particular obstacles for employees to share knowledge?

Prompt:

• Reluctance to ask advice for fear of approaching unknown colleagues?

• Reluctance to ask advice for fear of showing incompetence?

• Coordination difficulties (i.e. to set up meetings)?

• Difficulties to identify which colleagues to approach for advice?

  Probe:

• How common are these obstacles among the employees?

• Are there any actions taken by the [enterprise/establishment] to remedy these obstacles?

18. How are employees encouraged to keep up to date with new products and services, new processes or other recent developments in the industry?

Part 6 – Close

19. Are there any further comments you would like to make?

Thank the interviewee for their time and briefly discuss next steps.