Traditionally there are three areas we are developing our staff in, these are:

  1. To develop their skills to do their current job better, more efficiently (Training and Development)
  2. To develop their skills for the next job they could move into (Succession planning)
  3. Remedial training to bring them up to speed in their current role (performance Management)

(Sadly, a lot of the work we do in area 3 is a result of a lack of focus on area 2, but I digress.)

Development sits in two main buckets, technical training, and behavioural development.  The further up the tree an individual climbs the more the focus moves from technical skills and into behavioural skills.

WE believe there needs to be a fourth training and development opportunity for people, specifically in the area of training for a completely different job in the organisation.

 

The battle for talent has started and won’t end anytime soon, and there are two major challenges we all need to overcome.

 

  1. Employers need to recognise employee contribution to the company and value that as much or over technical skills (as they would if they were employing someone new)
  2. Employees need to recognise that the world is changing, and their repetitive, mundane but secure and predictable job might not be there next year.

We need a mind shift from both camps and recognise that what most organisations see as the easy option – change out – is expensive, possibly derisive and damaging to the community and the economy as a whole.  If I have a good base of computer knowledge, but have specialise in an area where demand has reduced significantly (as is happening all the time in the IT industry) surely the first option my employer and I should consider is “how much time, effort and money would be involved in redeveloping my skills into a technology that is currently in demand?”

When we consider the cost of changing out employees, the costs just do not always stack up and we have no guarantee the replacement person is going to be the dream cultural fit.

We have been in the training and development area for over 25 years.  When we started, developing staff was the norm and accepted, Government has penalties in place for not developing staff, money and time was wasted on development that didn’t really add value, but we have gone through a cycle where people are employed on their current skills and knowledge to do a job and the burden of responsibility for training and development fell back on the employee.  It’s time we rethink that and look at the actual business benefits of investing in our people for the future company we want to build.