Developing your people pays off

I was perusing my company’s (Azure_Group) Twitter feed the other day and I came across a thought provoking Tweet:

A CFO asks CEO, “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us?” CEO says, “What if we don’t and they stay?”

If you look closely at nearly every successful business you’ll find one of the reasons for their success is they continually look at ways to develop and grow the organisation, its knowledge and skills and its team. Yet many owners put this in the too expensive and too hard basket and run the risk of losing their brightest and best staff and creating a business that flounders along.

I believe a business is its people and its success or failure is mostly due to the strengths and commitment of its team. Unlocking greater performance, productivity and efficiency comes from ensuring your workforce has the opportunity to learn, is challenged in their roles and is able to potentially move forward in their careers.

Training isn’t only about sending employees to offsite courses. On-the-job training and mentoring from senior management is also highly beneficial, and also doesn’t require a financial outlay. Vital training and development can also come from exposing your team to challenging new projects, like developing a new product or service.

As a business owner or CEO it’s also important you continue to develop yourself as a leader by furthering your own knowledge and experience. This way your knowledge can flow through your team, thereby raising the whole organisation’s knowledge and skill base.

Some business owners hesitate in investing in their team’s skills as they perceive it to be a cost the business may not directly benefit from. The simple truth is if your turnover is greater than 15 per cent, it’s costing you money. So by making development a focus in your business and thereby engaging your team, your business will actually be better off.

Some tips to make implementing training and development much easier and cost effective:

1. Include staff development as an item in your annual planning activities
2. Set a budget each year, which the business can financially handle that accounts for the specific needs of employees so you are comfortable with your spend
3. Work with each of your team members to create a development plan which is reassessed at each performance review
4. Give your team ownership over their own development by involving and motivating them to plan and decide what training they need
5. Encourage employees with specialist skills to hold training sessions with the rest of the team
6. Look into training programs that provide government incentives
7. Look at training courses provided by industry associations you may be a member of as they usually provide discounts
8. Don’t forget that many training and development costs are tax deductible.

Staff leaving will always be in the back of your mind, however, by developing your people you are providing them with the opportunity to learn and grow which will in turn make this risk the least of your worries.  Instead, invest your time in planning your team’s development in way that will help you to build a strong and sustainable business.