Training Management: Employees Will Appreciate It
Everyone who's spoken to a hiring manager has heard the complaint that good people are just too hard to find. The secret is that the reason for this isn't that there aren't any good people. There are plenty of highly skilled and qualified employees in the workforce. They just don't go on the market - they're just too darned happy where they are. A big part of the reason for this is that they didn't necessarily start out as highly skilled and qualified, but were brought to that level through competent business and management coaching.
Certainly many CEO's have a Harvard MBA, but well below the CEO level, the fact is that a large percentage of management started out at the bottom. There's not much reality to the old quip "Why back in my day, you started at the bottom - and by God, you stayed there!" In fact, everyone knows that competent training management (often called "on the job training") is one of the chief ways companies have of increasing the worth of their in-house talent. And this worth doesn't just leave the company indeed.
Employees who see that a company invests in them through conferences, seminars, and other forms of training management will recognize a company that cares about them and their careers. Employees who are secure in this knowledge that their company is making an investment in them will likely not go to market looking for other companies to work for.
Another quiet reason to put resources into training management is that the results are less obvious than in academia. There is no diploma with qualifications that mandate increased pay. On the other hand, your employees will be happy to improve themselves on the job, and would sooner learn while getting paid than pay to go to school. As a result, both companies and employees are enthusiastic about training management programs, and want to see them expanded.
While change management is important in keeping a company current, training management is at least equally important. If the market never moved, it would be unnecessary. But even the strongest brands and the soundest companies can decay if they refuse to keep up with the world around them. Continuous management is required to keep ad campaigns convincing and workers in tune with the company goals. For these reasons, constant training is required.
While a piece of paper from Harvard never changes, continuous changes are a fact of life for corporations across the world. With the right training and change management, companies can keep on top, turning weak employees into strong ones, and allowing someone with out-dated qualifications into fresh and exciting new areas. And that's something even Harvard struggles with.
There are not many skilled people available in the job market because they are happy where they are. A major reason for this is that they did not necessarily start out as highly skilled and qualified as they have become, but were elevated to that level through constant and competent business and management coaching. When workers see that a company invests in them, through conferences, seminars, and other forms of training management, they see that they are working for a company that cares about them. Through effective change management, a company is able to keep its workforce very new and motivated all the time.
Published July 20th, 2007
Filed in Business, Management
