The training was a failure. All of that time, all of thateffort, all of that money, just gone, just out the window and gone. What otherexplanation was there, after all, for drop after drop in the hard numbers froma talented sales team in the wake of a training and development session?
It could have happened at any business, but for the purposesof this story, it happened at a large technology company with headquarters inthe Midwest. The top executives, frantic for answers, called a corporate trainingfirm. “Our sales are down,” the executives said. “We need training.”
That technology company was part of a large percentage ofbusinesses that continued to invest in corporate training, education anddevelopment during the last couple of years. Thousands and thousands of othersturned away from training, unable or unwilling to spend more money during therecession.
But a panel of more than 30 industry experts and academicprofessionals agreed that it would have been far better for businesses to continueto spend on training during those tough times — to invest in their employeesand to show the extent of that investment, to improve the business and keep itup to date, to be in a better position when the economy ultimately turns around— than to tighten the budget. The same rule applies now, too.
“Training is always important but even more so in times likethis,” says Pat Galagan, executive editor, ASTD. “This is when you really haveto come out of the gate running. It’s a big mistake to cut your training budgetwhen times are tough because it leaves you unprepared for better times.”
Make a plan
Members of the corporate training firm arrived the next dayand talked with as many employees as possible at the technology company, fromexecutives to engineers to those slumping sales representatives and everyoneelse in between. They prodded and probed and asked questions. They were curiousabout what, exactly, had happened.
They wanted to know, before they embarked on anothertraining session, whether another training session was actually necessary.
This is what you should do when you’re in the process ofdetermining whether to invest in training and development for your employees.You should prod and probe and plan, because just as you shouldn’t approach a newbusiness venture without a model and a solid idea of what you want toaccomplish, neither should you approach training without thoughts of what youneed to tackle.
“Typically, businesses start by looking at their goals andtheir objectives for a period of time, usually the coming year,” Galagan says.“Some companies will do what’s called a skills audit to see if they have theskills to support the direction. Then if they don’t, they will try to train tofill any gaps that they find.
“It’s a very comprehensive process of looking at the skillsthat employees have in key areas and matching that against the skills you feelyou need.”
And even though those needs will vary from business tobusiness, from industry to industry, there are a number of common trainingareas on which almost all businesses should focus. Leadership development,project management and team building are all increasingly important because ofthe changing demographics and economy and because general communication andtechnology skills are as important now as always.
“It’s important for leaders to first reassess their valueproposition and be clear about corporate performance objectives and how thosemay have changed because that then informs your training strategy,” says RodNunn, vice chancellor for workforce and community development, St. LouisCommunity College. “We view training specifically as a way to close the gapsbetween the performance needs of specific jobs and the employee performancecapabilities.”
