Dealing with No-Shows
No-shows are an issue that all companies struggle with, though most are not willing to put a number on it. They do deal with it however. Companies that normally provide learning without charge backs to the business will charge for no-shows, and those who always use charge-backs not only keep the charge on the books, but inform managers when people don’t show up.
There is little in the literature of learning on this issue. Organizations like ASTD and the E-learning Guild do not address it all. Through discussions with companies like Mars, Inc., Intel, Tenaris, and Caterpillar and others CUX was able to gain some insight into the issue. Everyone acknowledges that it is an issue, though most companies, even those with sophisticated metrics regimens and an LMS to track registrations and no-shows, don’t generate specific reports on this, so there is little hard data to go on. They do agree that no-shows are much more of a problem for leadership-level experiences; high level participants may have sudden “crises” that cause them to change their plans, and yet, their presence may be critical to the balance and numbers needed for a successful program.
Intel and Mars have a simple policy. The business unit of the no-show will be charged for the course – even though they would normally get it for “free”. Tenaris already is 100% charge-back, and the business unit pays unless someone cancels with sufficient notice. An additional “stick” in the charge-back regime is providing the list of no-shows to the managers and business units, so they can see how much money is being wasted.
Caterpillar acknowledges that they have a problem with no-shows and have the capability to generate reports from their learning management system. As they have been focusing more on effectiveness than efficiency for the early years of Cat U, they haven’t yet worked on the issue in depth.
There seems to be no difference in the way course no-shows are handled based on the type of course. Any time someone is expected to show up for learning involves some corporate resources (even is it’s just bandwidth for an online course) so it is taken seriously.
Some Examples
Government learning organizations tend to make their policies public. And most follow the same rule that if you don’t show, your organization pays. Here are some examples:
The Canadian School of Public Service has a carefully-spelled out cancellation and no-show policy with specific requirements for various types of courses. For example, leadership courses require a 28-day cancellation. Here is an excerpt:
Cancellation/No-Show Fees
Registrants who do not attend or do not complete the course (“no-shows”) or who cancel or reschedule after the cancellation date will be invoiced for the full course fee*.
*Note: For required training courses, the full course fee is the fee at which it is offered to participants outside the application of the Policy on Learning, Training and Development.
Effective October 1, 2006 the full course fee for official languages training is the equivalent of four (4) weeks of training costs. In addition, “no-show” registrants for official languages training will not be placed back on the waiting list.
Departments will be invoiced on a monthly basis on outstanding cancellation/no show fees related to required training and regular updates will be sent to the responsible Deputy Minister on the status of these amounts.
Please note that the School will adhere strictly to this cancellation, rescheduling, and “no show” policy.
http://www.myschool-monecole.gc.ca/Corporate/cancel_policy_e.html
NASA’s policy is clear.
Employee Development Guide
Headquarters Policies and Procedures
Cancellations, Withdrawals, and No Shows
Cancellations increase course costs and may, therefore, limit training opportunities. All course cancellations must be approved by the Division Chief (or equivalent). If an employee wishes to withdraw from a class after the class begins, a written withdrawal request must be approved by the employee's Division Chief and submitted through channels to the GSFC HQ Training Office. The request must be based on work-related factors that preclude completing the class. Employees may be responsible for any training costs for courses which are not successfully completed.
http://ohcm.gsfc.nasa.gov/DevGuide/Hq/HqPolicy/cancel.htm
Stanford University’s Environmental Safety and Health Division is equally clear:
No-shows
Personnel who register for a course and do not attend are termed no-shows. Home department accounts will be charged the per-student cost for all personnel failing to attend vendor-provided ES&H courses for which they have enrolled. No-shows will be tracked in the ES&H Training Database.
http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esh/training/chapter/r_specific.htm
The Bureau of Land Management addressed their problem in a letter that included the following:
Based upon most of our classes last year, about one person in every ten that registers for NTC training fails to attend with no notice to NTC. Last year there were some 270 such cases.
Even when we are notified of cancellations, many cancellations were made with less than 15 working-days notice. Under either of these circumstances, NTC is generally helpless to take mitigating actions such as replacing these dropouts with other people who need the training, tailoring training space to class size, canceling a course because enrollment drops below a critical threshold, producing fewer training materials, or releasing blocked lodging space early enough for hotels to replace the sudden vacancies.
As you are aware, the National Training Center delivers the courses that are approved by the Director. Subsequently, these courses are funded for the operation and tuition for BLM employees. When late cancellations and no-shows occur, BLM has paid for tuition that is lost to all of us. The cost of the design, the delivery, the instructors, and the materials are still incurred.
http://www.blm.gov/nhp/efoia/ntc/1998/ib/98ib-13p.htm
The CDC approaches it from the standpoint of lost opportunities as well and clearly specifies where the onus falls.
The Training and Career Development Branch (TCDB), Human Resources Management Office (HRMO), provides a wide range of training without charge to the Centers/Institute/Offices (CIOs). TCDB negotiates a "best price" with vendors and accepts participant enrollments sufficient to ensure a full class and to maximize the training dollars invested. Employees occasionally have schedule conflicts which require them to forego training. However, in some cases, these employees fail to notify TCDB staff of their unavailability and do not attend the courses for which they are registered.
Many of these courses have a waiting list of prospective participants; thus, notification to TCDB by employees who cannot attend would enable other interested employees to receive the training. Increases have occurred in vendor and staff operating costs, and training dollars have been lost because of "no shows." Therefore, it has now become necessary to charge CIOs for vacant training seats when employees fail to notify TCDB in a timely manner of their unavailability to attend a training course in which a seat was reserved for them.
The TCDB, HRMO, will charge the CIOs for the cost of the training class for employees who do not notify TCDB of their unavailability for the class at least 1 full work day before the start of that class (charge back). The amount of the charge back to the CIO will be the estimated cost of the empty seat for that training course. This charge back will be assessed regardless of whether the training is provided by a vendor or CDC instructor. CIOs may avoid this charge by canceling the requested training at least 1 full work day before the start of the class or using substitution to fill the reserved seat.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/foia/policies/trainingfundsimproveduse.htm |
