Why now isn’t the time to be cutting back on your employee learning and development budget
Before I get into this a little more, let me say that I fully understand that I’m coming at this topic from a biased point of view. My company exists to provide custom employee training, so obviously it’s in my best interest that you don’t cut back on your learning and development budget! But here’s the thing - I don’t think it’s in your best interest either. Let me explain why.
Given “current times”, I recognize that most businesses are focused on keeping their lights on and staying in business, particularly in some of the harder hit industries. But do you know what helps keep the lights on? Sales. And who generates sales? Your awesome staff, whether it’s through your sales staff building relationships with customers or your manufacturing staff creating quality products. Unless you’re a one-person show, your team is the key to your success, and it’s important to ensure they have the knowledge and skills they need to excel, because aligned and effective employees are profitable employees!! (by “aligned”, I mean that your employees have the skills they need to achieve your company’s goals) .
The entire goal of strategic training is to create training opportunities for your employees that have a positive return on investment and increase sales, whether directly or indirectly. In other words, you should only be investing in employee training that makes you more money on the other end. Sure, there are a few exceptions (training needed for regulatory reasons, for example), but the goal should always be to invest in training that aligns with your business goals and has a positive return. Ensuring employees have access to tools and knowledge to make you more money is a no-brainer and isn’t something that should be automatically cut right now.
Finally, the world is changing. The year 2020 has turned our lives upside down, and we’re hearing the word “pivot” a lot. Companies are changing, whether it’s moving their workforce to home offices or completely changing the products they manufacture (who’d have thought that manufacturing PPE would be such a huge thing a year ago?). In other words, employee roles are changing and your team needs to adapt to your “new normal”. As much as I hate using the word “pivot”, “new normal”, and even “current times”, the bottom line is that things have changed, and your employees need to change as a result. They need training support to help manage that change to ensure that your whole team is working towards a common goal and making the best use of company resources (human resources and otherwise).
I’d love to schedule a complimentary call to discuss how your company could benefit from new or updated training to ensure that your workforce is productive and profitable. Let’s chat!
HIGH TIDE LEARNING STUDIO
We’re Erin and Peter, a husband and wife team passionate about making your organization successful through employee training and engagement. Join us as we explore new opportunities to improve your workplace.