The Cost that Comes with the Wrong Training
We've looked at several profitability killers affecting nearly every business. Through this process, I've intentionally made a case for how effective leadership-while often viewed as something soft or intangible-can make an immediate and measurable impact on each. While I've provided some practical steps that we can each take individually to begin capturing the profit that's being killed, we can't afford to stop with just what we do personally; we need to be able to train each key team member with any level of leadership responsibility to get the same kind of results as we do if we want to achieve sustainable gains on our bottom line.
Over the course of my career, I've been involved with filling more than a thousand positions. Many were positions for which we hired external candidates to become part of an organization. Still, quite a few were filled through internal job postings. The one constant I've seen across organizations and industries has been how rarely the individual filling the role already has all the skills they'll need to be successful long term. That's a strong statement, but let's take it further by making it more personal. I'm confident that YOU don't have all the skills you need to be as successful as you could be in your role-and neither do I! In case I haven't offended you enough, I'll add that I'm not sure we ever really will.
I've heard that the only thing we can count on to stay the same is that there will be constant change around us. If we have any hope of keeping up with that change and avoiding lost profitability in the process, ongoing and focused development has to happen for our new team members to get up to speed, for our existing team members to keep up with the industry we're a part of, as well as for ourselves to ensure we can continue leading effectively.
Not Just Any Training Will Do...
When we build training and development into our business model, we send a very specific message to anyone we provide that for. That said, talking about providing that training but never doing it sends a very clear message too! When we invest our time and resources into helping someone develop a skill, they feel more valued. This can imply that they're worth this investment because we believe in their ability-and who doesn't want to feel valued? Whether it was when I was in a human resources role or now, through the work that Cindy and I do for organizations across the United States, I've never been willing to allow this message to only be implied. I've told each individual I've helped access training and every group we've provided training for that it's an investment into them. I've also been very clear about the measurable return the organization should receive on that investment.
I've always believed that investing in a team member by providing them with the training and development they need to become more effective in their role yields multiple benefits. I've heard John Maxwell say that the only thing worse than training someone who may someday leave the organization is not training someone, and they stay! To confirm my theory, I found an article from Ottawa University called "Why Is Training and Development Important?" that detailed what the author referred to as "the 5 benefits of training and development." I won't go into detail about every single one here. Still, they suggested that training our team members impacts each of the following areas:
? Employee Retention
? Developing Future Leaders
? Empowering Employees
? Boosting Workplace Engagement
? Building Workplace Relationship
I don't think I have to ask you how closely these tie to the profitability killers we've been working to address. With this in mind, though, we can't start throwing mud against the wall and hope some will stick. To get actual, measurable results that produce long-term profitability, not just any training will do! We'll need to take the approach of a specialist rather than a general practitioner, so let's dig into how much money is wasted by doing this wrong...
The Cost of Using the Wrong Tool
Painting a picture of the tools you can provide a potential team member to grow within the organization can play a significant role in recruiting. Failing to make good on those promises, though, sooner than later, will be a direct contributor to the profitability that's killed through high turnover and low employee engagement. Let's face it, we wouldn't want to work for someone who doesn't live up to their word, so we can't expect anyone else to-regardless of how "good" the reasons are... But even when we do invest in training our team members, we can't just do it blindly and expect to get measurable results!
An article from Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, called "Employers Wasting Billions on the Wrong Training," shared this:
Across the world, $130 billion is spent on learning and development programs. Research shows that only 25% of it is judged to be effective. The waste is attributed to a range of factors including the quality of delivery and uninspiring content. It is also likely that many staff are being trained to develop skills they already possess. Other training may be on areas that are not critical to performance.
If that's even close to correct, nearly $100 billion is wasted. That makes me think back to being told to clean my plate when I was a kid because there were starving kids in other countries! Well, maybe that reference is a stretch, but $100 billion seems like a ton of money-especially when it likely doesn't come close to all the profitability that could be captured if the proper training were provided instead!
Considering some of the thoughts I challenged you with related to promotions and succession planning, it's easy to recognize how the need for different types of training can vary from role to role. Some of those variances are clear; I can't imagine a company sending someone starting in an entry-level position through an executive-level business operations course. But even when we have a relatively clear idea of the specific skills a team member needs to develop as they grow in their current role or into the next position, attending a training session and developing a skill are two VERY different things! And we still haven't guaranteed that it will translate into changed behavior.
Doing nothing has its own costs, and doing the wrong thing kills plenty of profitability too. If we're going to realize a measurable return on investment-earning engagement, increasing retention, and driving productivity-we need to be sure we're providing not just the type of training each team member needs but also that the training is delivered in a way that they can absorb and apply it. And that's rarely something we can pull straight off a shelf!
Training That Can Be Absorbed...
Several years ago, while I was working with a group of highly skilled employees in a construction company, one of the most senior guys was grumbling about some of the recent folks who had been hired. He was frustrated because they didn't know everything he expected them to know right away. "When I started, they showed you once, and you'd better do it right from there on!" I called BS and asked if he really thought he came from the womb knowing everything he did after twenty years in the trade. He didn't necessarily like my reply, but that didn't mean my point was invalid. All too often, the folks who are the most seasoned within our companies-also the ones who are likely responsible for training new employees on the X's and O's of the job-follow this approach. "I told you how to do it, and it's up to you to figure out from there..."
I won't bother detailing how much profitability that can kill in any organization! I will share the second point I made in that conversation, however. Once the group stopped laughing at my comment, I asked how many potentially great employees the organization lost in those twenty years simply because no one provided them with a training approach they could absorb. The silence was deafening...
Suppose we're going to have any real hope of capturing the lost profitability that occurs when we've used the wrong tool (type of training) for the job. In that case, we need to be just as intentional about ensuring the tool is being used correctly, meaning it won't matter how accurate the training is if the individual being trained doesn't receive the message!
I also remember a conversation reasonably early in my career when someone with a much larger ego than they had earned was filling a role where they thought they had eminent authority over basically anything I ever did. They explained that I should never have more than one mentor, that any input from another source could be confusing and contradictory to what they expected me to achieve. I'll fight the urge to detail how incredibly self-absorbed that individual was in every other aspect of their life; I'm sure that one comment provides you with more than enough perspective. However, if applied to how we approach training team members for any role in our organization, that idea could kill just as much profitability as expecting someone to be told something once and know all they'd ever need to know... Since then, I've been blessed with several outstanding mentors-all of whom had very different experiences and provided me with advice on equally different levels. Each played a critical role in helping me grow throughout my career. In case you're wondering, I was quick to distance myself in every way possible from the fellow trying to play God!
So let's tie all that back to how effective training can yield significant returns to the employer and every employee involved. When we provide the type of training a team member needs to grow in their current or their next role, we're helping them become more productive and showing them that we genuinely value the potential they bring to the organization. When we ensure that training is provided in a way that they can absorb, retain, and apply, we significantly improve the odds of being able to measure the return. To do either of those things well, though, we need to have a solid understanding of exactly who our team members are and where each of them hopes to go.
