If you think training is expensive

““If you think training is expensive, try ignorance”. Peter Drucker”

Training can be in many forms, on-the-job, off-the-job etc. But not doing that training can have costs that as a manager and business we could be paying for many years.

For example, if you have a small team, having one person trained to help and support people, may be all that is needed. But what happens when that person is sick or worse, they leave! How do you train your people then?

If you do not train, then using systems take longer, mistakes are made, and some of these mistakes can cost $1000s, especially if the error causes a customs rejection or fine for missing data!

And of course, that is ignoring the personal impact and stress often caused by not knowing what to do, or how a system works. Of course in times of change, many people are seeking job security, and this means that many people are more likely to hide errors, than show publically they do not understand. This is particularly so when training is limited or non-existent. The only way many managers will discover that people do not know what or how to do something is when mistakes happen. Often many of these mistakes are not seen for quite a while. Many mistakes are never seen by us, but by our customers. They will see this as poor service, and will vote with their feet when the contract is up for renewal

One of the roles of training is to help encourage the asking of questions and collaboration between peers.

So while it may be difficult to release people for training at the beginning of change, it is cost effective and better than not having enough people for effective business operations in the longer term.

Training people is also a “feel good” factor. People feel appreciated and recognised because they have been selected and offered the opportunity of training.

When is it training?

Like most good employers, aiming for 70:20:10 approach is best practice. This is where 70% of training and development is on-th-job, 20% of development is coaching based and 10% is formal or classroom based training.

One of the challenges for many managers is demonstrating when “at desk” or on-the-job training is given. As often the employee believes they are being “shown” and not “trained”. Being trained is not necessarily about attending a formal course or E-learning, but Training is a planned activity wherever it takes place. As managers we need to remind people that “being shown” IS training!