OF BISCUITS AND ATTRITION

Can the biscuits you serve have a direct impact on your attrition rate, I wondered as I munched through some plain,glucose ones- ones I carry as emergency energy boosters in my bag.

The venue and time was the one I am very used to: A training program tea break. I was eating my own biscuits simply because none were served with the tea. As I sat by myself for ten minutes I went over the range of biscuits and snacks I have had in my breaks in the training rooms of various companies. Most days there are a few platters in which the largest number are simple sugar-topped biscuits, a few cashew cookies and a few cream biscuits. The cream biscuits vanish first, the chocolate and cashew cookies go next and the plain ones are the ones that are mostly left over. Then there are days I can remember where we trainers- my colleague and I- were served premium hi-fibre biscuits while the participants were served the regular platters. Very few times there is a wider service- Diet Cokes and big, ginger cookies in a jar. And then there are some even better days when there are sandwiches and biscuits with a range of teas. But to balance off those luxurious tea-times are these kind of biscuitless days when tea is just that- tea from the vending machine!

I have become bolder over the years and nowadays tell the company that biscuits must be served. I mostly hear from the HR person that the peon had been instructed to do so but no one cross-checked or supervised the service. Participants plied with biscuits- the more premium the better- always seem to work more happily. Eating in the middle in no way affects their appetite for lunch.

For the afternoon tea break the biscuits become even more important. The trainer's most testing period is the slump hour that follows lunch. If participants have been kept happily busy in that period it is only necessary to reward them. I can recall some Delhi clients serving pakodas and sandwiches at that time. So do I sound ridiculous when I say that biscuits are rewards and people notice their snacks and meals more than the content of the program? Do I sound pernickety when I demand biscuits for the participants?

What they are served and when they are served seems to me directly reflective of the employer's attitude towards the training and the employee. How important is he or she to you? Is his comfort critical? Is training being done to exhaust budgets or to really develop the executive and the manager?

The interesting thing is that feedback on this matter is never given directly. Or for that matter, feedback on many aspects of the training program that is not the training company's doing is not attributed to those issues directly- be it the choice of days or the number of hours. When you ask them to work on their off days I have to deal with their puckers and when you ask me to extend the working hours they look at me as if I am the hangman.

Unfortunately, the disgruntled feeling that the participants bear in their minds goes as feedback on the entire training program. And that impacts me even though I was not responsible for the experience! So now, do you see now why I demand biscuits for my bunch when I train?

At the cost of sounding mercenary I sometimes wonder is “better feed” directly proportionate to better feedback. Your thoughts?