A story is told of a CEO who was quizzed by a Finance Manager saying "we keep pumping money into staff development, what if they leave us?". The CEO replied and said "What If we don't train them at all and they stay?". This got me thinking, do we not have such scenarios playing out in companies today. When revenues are low the first thing most run to is staff development costs to remove them totally as if it is some luxury; a "nice to have". Such a way of thinking has caused many organisations to stagnate. Below are some reasons you should train your staff members.
1. Build an organization for the future - We must run businesses with the future in mind. The vision needs people to survive. If you want long term sustainability of the business you need to always look at your people and ensure they are prepared for the future. It is said that the best way to predict the future is to work on it now. The challenges your organization is solving keep mutating hence employees need to stay on top of the game. Innovation and new thinking is made possible through training.
2. Training builds loyalty and motivation - Do you want engaged, loyal and motivated staff working for you? I am sure your answer is "Yes". When employees are empowered they are more confident in their work, they see reason in staying with the company and more-so this leads to increased productivity. It is not always that employees are looking for more money, they just want leaders who show that they care for their growth. 3. Build a leadership pipeline intentionally - Many times leaders look for people to promote from within and they struggle to find them. It is simply because there is no deliberate effort to identify talent and groom them for promotion. You cannot expect employees to function only on the basis of what the previous employer taught them or on the basis on university qualifications. That is like expecting to reap without sowing; a classical fraud. You can only get out of the people what you put in them.
4. Skills are a source of competitiveness - Your organization does not exist in a vacuum. It probably exists in a highly competitive environment. It is no longer enough to compete at a product level. What is left is for organization to compete at the human capital level. No organization can copy your people, their culture, attitudes and capabilities.
5. Organisations that train staff are attractive - Organisations that shy away from empowering their people will not attract the right people. Ask yourself "what is our reputation on the market in the area of staff development?". This could be the reason you keep attracting only the desperate not skilled manpower. Organisations deemed as parasitic in nature will struggle to hire and keep people for reasonable timeframes.
Staff development is therefore not an option but a must.
