Conference 7.286::digital

re Note 2515.0 by ASDG::FOSTER:

>     I recently saw a memo floating around that said that caree-related
>     external courses should not be approved unless they are part of
>     a degree program which has already been started.
>     
>     Is this true? Is it being enforced yet?

        Well, a memo from Jay Zager, writing for the Senior
        Leadership Team and dated 24 May, announces a broad range of
        discretionary spending freezes for engineering.

        One of the categories is external training and management
        training EXCLUDING the college tuition reimbursement program.

        Actually, the memo freezes just about everything, since it
        ends with "All other discretionary spending is frozen without
        Group Controller approval."

        Bob

    yep.. reply .1 quotes the policy..seminars, etc. are not allowed ..
    only tutition for the after-hours college programs where employees are
    reembursed, etc.
    

From:	NAME: John Sims @MLO                
	FUNC: Strategic Resources             
	TEL: 223-7243                         <SIMS.JOHN AT PNDVUEA1 at MLMAIL at MLO>
Date:	22-May-1993
Posted-date: 22-May-1993
Precedence: 1
Subject: EXTERNAL EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE                                        1
To:     See Below

REF: ATTACHED MEMO FROM JOSE RAMIREZ

**********************************************************************


From:	NAME: JOSE RAMIREZ_ER               
	FUNC: CORPORATE EMPLOYEE RELATIONS    
	TEL: 223-9584                         <RAMIREZ.JOSE AT A1 at ICS at PKO>
Date:	21-May-1993
Posted-date: 21-May-1993
Precedence: 1
Subject: External Educational Assistance                                        1
To:     See Below
CC:     See Below

This memo is intended to provide you with a briefing of the revised 
External Education Assistance Policy.  The work related to this policy 
was discussed previously at the Senior Leadership Team meeting and has 
now received the approval of the U.S. Personnel Policy Development 
Committee and Hope Greenfield, manager of the office for Development 
and Learning.

We believe the new policy is reflective and in concert with the 
current direction of the Company regarding investment in education.  
Your feedback to the key highlights (see next page) is needed by 
Thursday, May 27th. This will enable us to begin to communicate these 
changes and allow affected employees to work with their manager or 
supervisor in time for the new school term.  

If you have any questions or wish to receive the full text of the 
policy, please contact me or Rick Riesenberg at your convenience.

Regards,
Jose Ramirez

                 EXTERNAL EDUCATION ASSISTANCE (EEA)
                      KEY HIGHLIGHTS AND CHANGES



o   A written development plan, tied to Digital's business goals, is a 
    prerequisite to an employee requesting EEA.

o   Managers are responsible to evaluate and balance the return to 
    Digital and benefits to employees, to ensure a clear return on the 
    educational investment before approving and planning the funding 
    for EEA.

o   Employees are responsible for demonstrating the relationship 
    between a course program, seminar or conference to a current or 
    future Digital business goal.

o   All regular active (R20-R40) are eligible to request EEA for 
    career related courses.

o   All book cost are reimbursed at 100% level to acknowledge the ROI 
    associated with the approval of a course. Today the reimbursement
    is 100% for job required courses and 75% for career related 
    programs.

o   If business requirements, the employee's job, or the employee's 
    manager change, this could affect previously approved programs.
    However, managers would be expected to follow objective criteria
    noted in policy when revisiting such a decision.

o   Only seminar and conferences that are primarily educational in 
    nature are funded by EEA. All others are funded thru business 
    expense or purchase order as appropriate.



To Distribution List: <deleted>

	In other words, education assistance is no longer an employee
	benefit. It now exists only to serve the business needs of the
	company.

	Roy

    
    Re: .4
    
    Yes, and what's worse:
    
    > o If business requirements, the employee's job, or the employee's 
    >   manager change, this could affect previously approved programs.
    >   However, managers would be expected to follow objective criteria
    >   noted in policy when revisiting such a decision.
    
    In other words, funded or not, you have no commitment.  It could be
    funded one day and cancelled the next.
    
    I would expect this policy to result in very few people seeking
    advanced learning.
    
    Steve
    

    
    Do you hear the (faint, but rising) ringing of the death knell?  
    One of the things that always impressed me about this company 
    was its willingness to invest in the education of its employees.  
    
    That willingness was embodied in policies and procedures that 
    allowed local managers to determine whether they needed to 
    send an employee to a particular type of training, bolstered
    by a philosophy that encouraged those managers to do so.
    
    A justification for external training should be verbal and easy
    to achieve, not bureaucratic and "analyzed" by nameless, faceless
    committees.
    
    I will be trying to attend the Visual Basic Technical Summit in 
    October in Boston.  I am, nominally, a technical writer.  I cannot
    justify that expense based upon my job.  However, I believe that
    technical writing is metamorphosing into a profession that will
    require ever increasing sophistication in the on-line delivery
    of information.  I further believe that Windows, as the lingua
    franca of information exchange in the 1990s, will play a large part
    in that delivery.  How do I capture that in ROI terms?
    
    Somehow, I think I'll be paying the $395.00 myself.
    
    Glenn
                                                          

    Just yesterday I had a conversation with a colleague about Digital's
    health.  He said that he'd start worrying when Digital saw fit to stop
    the educational re-imbursement program, as a sign of deeper sickness than
    generally known.  I don't fully understand the practical impact of the
    new policy stated a few notes back, but it seems to give the latitude
    to have no effect, or to totally eliminate investments in education as
    "discretionary".  It seems to depend on how much support your manager
    is willing to lend to a given request.  Time, I think, will tell.
    
    But the simple fact that education is under consideration for ROI
    analysis, as nebulus as that may be, means that $$$ will be cut out as
    the goal.  So, are we really hurting that badly that we mortgage the
    future by NOT developing our people, or is this just somebody's bad
    idea?  I hope the latter, and that better ideas will prevail.  If its
    the former, than I think the downsizing we're seen to date is really
    just the beginning.
    
    ts    

    
    
    Recently there was short piece on ABC news about a small Ohio
    company that a few years ago began an employee education program.
    This program was both work-related and general.  Employees took
    technical stuff as well as general math and English.  The company
    owner arranged for the program right on site and paid the full
    cost.  All the employees were asked to do was invest the time.
    Since that program was instituted the company has seen a reduction
    in their products' defect rates to nearly zero.
    
    A case in point, one operator on the manufacturing line was interviewed
    and related how several years ago who was producing many defects in
    part because there were frequent written ECOs, operational instructions,
    etc. which he couldn't read.  After some English and reading classes,
    he now is not only very proud of his newly acquired reading ability
    which is benefitting him personally in many ways, but his defect rate
    is near zero specifically because of this training.
    
    It is not uncommon in Japan for employees to be training and
    development activities up to 20% of their time at work!
    
    This is a very bad sign!  I quite agree that this is evidence of
    "deeper sickness."  It's the proverbial pennywise and pound foolish
    scenario.
    
    Steve
    

    I am currently enrolled in a MBA program in Finance.  I work as a Sales 
    Rep selling Digitals MCS portfolio.  The ability to provide financial 
    justification to customers is critical to selling intangibles.  On
    Tuesday my manager notified me that she was not going to support me in
    my efforts to obtain an MBA and the justification she used was slanted
    toward the Direction Digital is going with external training.
    
    I had to drop the classes due to the high cost and my inability to
    afford them at this time.  Whell, all I can say is, ANOTHER BENEFIT
    BITES THE DUST!!!
    
    TLA

    The new policy seems to put the ball in your manager's court, i.e.,
    it's now a local decision with ROI ramifications.  So you could say
    that external education has become another line of business.
    
    But the other perspective is that Digital and other such companies can
    not continue to replace the state in educational assistance.  The
    investment perspective rules from now on, rightly or wrongly.
    
    /d.c. 

    I asked for an interpertation from my personnel department and was told
    that if you are already in a degree program, you may continue,
    uninterupted. Those most effected will be employees who wish to begin
    a degree program in the future.  So the noter a couple back who had to
    get out of the masters program for finance should speak to his
    personnel department.  He should be able to continue unles his manager
    fully understood this and doesn't care.

    Let's suppose that:
    
    $100,000 training cut  =  1 TFSO
    
    Which is the better investment in this scenario?

    re: .10  manager's decision
    
>    The new policy seems to put the ball in your manager's court, i.e.,
>    it's now a local decision with ROI ramifications.
    
    The added killer about this:  How many of us still work for the same
    manager as we did six months ago? How many of us will be working for
    the same manager in six months?  How many of us even know what our
    manager looks like?
    
    With the current organizational thrashing, there is no continuity of
    management, no long-term committments, and no long-term career plan.
    My manager just barely knows what his own fate will be;  how can he
    possibly be able to quantify the ROI for my education under these
    circumstances?  The short answer:  He can't, so he won't.
    
    Digital has ceased all investments in personnel. The company seems to
    assume that, because we have an excess in the number of people, we also
    have an excess of usuable skills and talents. Somehow they expect that
    the company can "coast" and still expect to survive.  I think this type
    of behaviour will haunt us to the (rapidly approaching) corporate grave.
    
    Geoff

    I signed up (and just go reimbursed) for two university class. When I
    filled out the paper work, I put in that I was after my bachelor in
    computer science.  Does this mean I am enrolled in a degree program AND
    can continue through the entire program?
    
    I send the above to my personel department and see what the response
    is.
    
    greg_t
    

    GEEP continues to be alive and well.  I'm sure scenarios where the GEEP
    participant's job disappears while the participant is in residency must
    be possible now.

    Is GEEP a "safe place to hide" for two years ?

    L.

    
    Signed up, I believe, is that you must be accepted into the degree
    program by the college or university. I have been doing by B.S. and
    will be finnished by this time next year, I have had no problems in
    getting my courses paid for and signed off. My forms go to personnel so
    if there was a major change I am sure they would bounce them back to
    me.
    
    Mary
    

    re: .11
    
    Can you give me the name of the personnel person you spoke to?  My
    personnel rep says that even though I have been enrolled in a BA
    program, the rest of my classes may not be approved, unless I can
    tie them to DEC business goals.
    
    I'd sure like a consistent answer on this stuff - can anyone point
    me to someone who can help?
    
    Thanks much
    
    Angeline