CAREERS: Training will raise industry standards: Lotherington

<p>What constitutes a good job? The answer is obvious: responsibility, </p><p>satisfaction, good pay, a clear and upward career path and training. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But with the economy the way it is, good wages are hard to find while </p><p>career path development seems to be a thing of the past. Satisfaction </p><p>walked out the door a long time ago, when clients started demanding TVCs </p><p>within a week or less. And responsibility; well, very few are willing to </p><p>take risks these days for fear of being fired by the client. That just </p><p>leaves training - a subject which agencies claim to be focusing on a lot </p><p>more these days. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Training is one of the ways to upgrade people's skills and mindsets to </p><p>understand and cope with a fast-changing world. It is also one of the </p><p>best ways to keep staff," said Wayne Lotherington, chief executive </p><p>officer of Singapore-based Allsorts Habit Creation, a company that </p><p>specialises in training. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>However, Lotherington - whose clients include BBDO, Leo Burnett, TBWA, </p><p>DDB, Lowe Lintas, McDonald's, Ericsson and Motorola - said that some </p><p>companies were conducting training programmes with inappropriate </p><p>content. "I frequently hear about training to build up people's </p><p>negotiation skills but what the trainers do is set up hostage </p><p>simulations where participants have to try to talk the abductors into </p><p>freeing their captives and surrendering peacefully." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He said there isn't much that agency staffers can take back to their </p><p>work from this because the content isn't relevant to the marketing </p><p>communications industry. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The objective is to give people advice, rules and guidelines that help </p><p>them deal with day-to-day work-related issues, such as negotiating </p><p>prices, trying to persuade the client to give me three extra days or how </p><p>to get the art director to attach the greatest priority to my </p><p>project." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Lotherington set up Allsorts in 1999, however, he isn't new to the </p><p>industry in the region. He spent nine years with DDB in Melbourne, </p><p>rising to group account director. Between 1989 and 1991, he was the </p><p>group account director at Batey Ads with responsibility for the </p><p>Singapore Tourism Board. Before striking out on his own, with his own </p><p>company, he was the training director at Leo Burnett. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Lotherington said that some agencies were reluctant to allocate a budget </p><p>for training because it would be money wasted if staff left the company </p><p>seem after completing their training programmes. But he added that </p><p>ultimately "training benefits the industry" and would help raise </p><p>standards. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>