With slimmer budgets now
a fact of life, often one
of the first lines to be
cut from organizational
budgets is training and
development. It’s an easy
thing to cut, and when times
are tough and organizational
life is really about survival,
training is often considered
to be “non-essential” to
success. But is that really
the case?
Admittedly, training and
development can be expensive.
It involves not just direct
costs such as class registration
fees, but also many indirect
costs like travel, per diem
rates, materials, and time
away from work. These are
real financial costs and
the impact on budgets is
significant. No argument
there.
The costs of not training
people are real: for example,
mistakes, lower quality
product, procedures or rules
not followed, loss of productivity
and loss of morale, to name
but a few. Think of the
last person who served you
in a government agency.
If you had someone who had
apparently not been trained
well and who didn’t appear
to know what they were doing,
it didn’t exactly give you
confidence in the agency,
did it?
In addition, training sometimes
doesn’t have immediate results.
Despite popular belief,
people are not sprinkled
with “fairy dust” at a training
class. They mostly don’t
come back with new skills
and knowledge, ready to
go. There is a period of
transfer back to the job,
which may take hours, days
or weeks. Neither is training
a “catch all” for things
that are wrong in departments
or organizations; perhaps
the problems are due to
jobs being structured incorrectly,
inexperienced managers or
just simply poor communication.
Some of the reasons people
use for not training employees
are, “it is too expensive,”
“the return on investment
is hard to measure,” and
“it is too slow.” But consider
this: what is the cost of not training
them?
When employees are trained
properly, training becomes
an investment. The benefits,
although perhaps “soft”
and “indirect” are also
real:
- Customers are more satisfied
when they are served by
staff who are happy and
where morale is good.
- Training is not just
training. Most people
experience a level of
morale boosting from training,
just by knowing the organization
is willing to make an
investment in them.
- Loyalty to the organization
is increased.
- When pay raises cannot
be made, the offer of
training and development
is often a good motivator.
Yes, public sector agencies
are in a time of hardship.
Most have had their budgets
cut, and many have chosen
to implement a training
and development budget cut.
Yet, it is attention to
detail and customer service
that makes public sector
agencies shine. How can
this happen when employees
are undertrained, overstressed
and low in morale?
When you are considering
whether to cut training
and development, just ask
yourself: “what happens
if we don’t train
them?” The answers may lead
you to realize just how
valuable training really
is.
