Have you ever heard anyone say, “they have completed training”? Generally, that is the mindset of most businesses. What they are usually referring to is the initial onboarding of a new employee. Imagine you have a new piece of equipment installed and never do any preventative maintenance on it. Each piece of equipment has its unique preventative maintenance program to keep it operating optimally and training is the same for your team members.

• How do you assess the long-term training needs of your staff?
• Do you have a specific career developmental plan for each team member?

Walter Bond, a former NBA player and one of the most sought-after international speakers and coach describes it this way, “smart companies are training and developmental organizations at their core”.

Businesses routinely spend more money on coffee than they do on ongoing training. They believe training time is an expense either by taking away from the productivity of the employee or an unnecessary cost, but studies have shown the opposite. Targeted training has a direct impact on your staff’s morale, productivity, safety, value to your company as an asset, their ability to function autonomously, and increased employee retention.

A strong training or mentorship program actually becomes a significant recruiting tool. Imagine if you were offered a new software upgrade that would allow the new equipment you purchased to be more productive, cost less, have less downtime, last longer, and function much more safely. Would you invest in that upgrade? Of course, you would immediately evaluate the proposition based on the ROI of such an investment. What would stop you from doing the same with advanced employee training? I know, the response to this question the majority of times is “what if I invest in their training and they leave?” Shouldn’t you be looking at it another way? “What if I don’t invest in them and they stay?”

What is your organization’s current commitment to advanced training and what should it be?