Training as a benefit

Looking at training as a benefit – with a payoff for the employer
How do you find, hire, and keep good employees? Even stable companies know that finding and retaining talented employees is a problem that just won’t go away. How can you, as a business owner, create a strategy to thrive and grow?
Consider offering a formalized employee development plan as a benefit with a training program at its core.
Such a strategy can aid in human resource planning, placement, turnover reduction, salary planning and key performance indicator identification. It can also be beneficial for many other strategic issues such as accident reduction, quality and productivity improvement, improved customer retention and acquisition, and a reduced tax liability. Sound too good to be true? Consider the following:
— In a two-year study conducted by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans for their book, Love ’em or Lose ’em: Getting Good Employees to Stay, employees stated that training and education are among the most important things keeping them on the job.
— In Training Magazine, E. Krell of Springfield Re-manufacturing Corp. (SRC), a company dedicated to open-book management and employee development, states that employees at his company think about every action they take in terms of how it will affect the bottom line. SRC founder Jack Stack wrote The Great Game of Business, a book about the benefits of employee development and financial literacy.
— Barbara Fielder, in her book, Motivation in the Workplace, says there is less absenteeism in organizations where ideas are shared in a team-focused environment. One of the best ways to cultivate that team-focused environment is through education and training experiences.
— In a study conducted by Greenfield Associates, an East Coast consulting firm, 80% of lost customers reported poor quality as their reason for seeking a different supplier. If the suppliers had been trained appropriately, their quality would have been drastically improved.
— Lastly, training can directly affect your company’s bottom line. According to David S. Laske, CPA, a shareholder at Kolb Lauwasser & Co., S.C., you can receive a tax benefit for money spent on training your employees.
When you consider the above, it’s obvious that training is a benefit that goes beyond retention to an investment in your company with tangible, measurable returns. For example, having a good health insurance plan may get you more job applicants and even more employees. It may even keep employees from leaving. But what does it do to help your company improve the level of service to customers, revenue or profitability?
Training will help you grow your business in a way unlike any other benefit. But in order for it to do so, your training program must be woven into your strategic plan so that employee development supports both the goals of your organization and of your employees. If it is not, then your training is just a cost that will have no benefit to your organization or your employees.
There are seven components that need to be included in your employee development plan, and your training program should tie them all together.
1. Goal setting and planning. Employees and your company need to know how to set goals and how those goals are related to each other. Without this there is a strong probability that you and your workforce will be pulling in opposite directions.
2. Basic business skills. This is what Jack Stack of SRC calls the “Great Game of Business.” Once your employees understand how your organization operates on a financial level, they will be empowered to make smarter decisions, hence more profitable ones.
3. Adaptability. Cross-training employees is a way to build respect and understanding that results in a more productive environment. Employees that know how all the jobs fit together are less likely to have a “not my job” attitude and will be more likely to seek out ways to support the global functions of your organization. Another way to cultivate adaptability is to devote 20% of your employee’s training budget to elective studies (e.g., classes or seminars that are not connected to the employee’s specific duties or even your company’s product or service). It enhances creativity and encourages “outside-the-box” thinking.
4. Technical skills. This is the component that most organizations singularly focus on when developing a training strategy. These are the skills unique to the requirements of the job, whether they are computer skills, mechanical skills or company operations. It is necessary, but not the only way your staff can be developed.
5. Problem-solving tools and skills. Critical thinking, root-cause analysis and even applied statistics training can have an empowering effect on an employee’s thought process. These skills can eliminate inertia when employees come upon obstacles that might paralyze a less educated employee.
6. Interpersonal skills. These are more commonly known as communication skills. Speaking, listening and conflict management are the foundation of interpersonal skills. In a 20-year study conducted by the Gallup Organization of more than 105,000 employees, it was discovered that employees leave managers, not companies. Managers who have good interpersonal skills have much better retention rates than those who don’t. The study also found that managers with good interpersonal skills had higher productivity and higher profitability.
7. Ability and style of mental processing and external interaction. An effective training and development strategy without this component would be like conducting an orchestra without knowledge of which instruments the musicians play and how well they play them. Personality profiles are good tools to identify the talents people have for external interactions. Some samples of personality profiles are the Predictive Index, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and Directive Interactive Supportive Conscientious (DISC) inventory. They all have their advantages and disadvantages; however, the main point is to have some kind of “auditioning” process, which is what these tools are designed to do. The mental processing part identifies whether people prefer pictures, sounds or feelings to process information. Identifying these talents can help not only in developing training but also in making smarter choices in terms of job placement, job design and hiring.
Offering a comprehensive training benefit to a job candidate you can’t let “get away” is a way to offer a truly meaningful benefit — one of the only benefits that will pay off for both you and the employee.
Oct. 12, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee