Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Career developmentMovers and shakersLearning & development

Career file: Alan Thomas – from the chemistry of black paint.

by Personnel Today 17 Apr 2007
by Personnel Today 17 Apr 2007

What does your job involve?

I have primary responsibility for the management and organisational development of our 450 managers in the UK & Ireland, plus recruitment. I also manage electronic communications through our websiteand our intranet, and facilitate the region crisis team and business continuity.

How many courses/events do you organise?

I organised 342 separate training interventions -including 47 formal courses -in 2006. These included a four-day course on the chemistry of black paint, which is as esoteric as one can get. Our standard management development offerings have harmonised content across Europe with 80% core content and 20% local custom and practice.

What course/training are you working on now?

A cultural effectiveness intervention -this will include the facilitative responsibilities that should be necessary for native English speakers in international events. It’s the sort of thing I wish had been available to me 15 years ago when I started working in an international environment.

How and why did you get into training?

It was via a natural progression from sales management/human performance to training anddevelopment. This stimulated my interest in learning in a way that school never did. I followed a qualification route through IPD and an MBA and have never stopped learning since.

How long have you worked in training/L&D?

I became a training manager in 1986.

What’s the best or most memorable training event you’ve attended?

GBS’s Participative Training Methods – not only was it valuable learning, it set me on the right course and the tutor helped me find the right path.

And the worst?

One where a top-flight coaching guruused a showcase session to deliver a full-blown eco-rant.

What’s key to putting on a successful course?

It’s the matching of learning needs and style preferences with methodology and delivery. I always try to work on a ‘less is more’ basis, ever mindful of the need to optimise performance/cost.

How do you measure the impact of training?

Minute by minute, through the engagement of learners, ad hoc questioning and happy sheets through to competency development, but there is always a diminishing ROI as you progress up the Kirkpatrick levels. And there comes a point where you have to accept that performance depends on many factors.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Doing what I want to do with an acceptable work-life balance.

What career advice would you give to someone setting out on a career in training/L&D?

It’s not about how smart you are but more about how smart your clientele can be.

Who’s your training/learning hero?

Edward de Bono – he has done more to help people to think effectively than anyone else.

What’s the best piece of training/L&D advice you’ve been given?

Never attempt to train without a clearly identified training need.

If you had the power, what one piece of legislation would you enact?

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

I would ban all inherited wealth, which would even up the playing field.

Alan Thomas is staff resourcing and development manager at Henkel UK & Ireland. Henkel is a major adhesives company with detergent, technology and hair and beauty divisions.




Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Medical Training Application Service for junior doctors to undergo independent review
next post
Doctors want national OH service to tackle sickness absence

You may also like

Investing in skills when budgets are tight

12 May 2025

Leading with honest feedback: A responsibility in recruitment

24 Apr 2025

High-level apprenticeship spend doubles in five years

16 Apr 2025

How to build a culture that empowers neurodivergent...

14 Apr 2025

Movers and shakers in HR: Stagecoach, Sodexo UK,...

11 Apr 2025

Number of SMEs hiring staff in decline

10 Apr 2025

Gen Z and ‘conscious unbossing’: how can HR...

7 Apr 2025

How to build a commercially-minded workforce

3 Apr 2025

Report reveals employment postcode lottery for older workers

24 Mar 2025

Why the apprenticeship shakeup is good news for...

20 Mar 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+