We Can’t Afford Training Time
Does your company provide or encourage continuous learning? Is training time viewed as an investment or only an expense?
There are many small businesses with organizational leaders who scoff at the idea of training. One of the best excuses that leaders say, create, or allow, is that there is not enough time for training.
Certainly, the dollars spent for training can be a stumbling block, yet organization leaders may blame it on time.
Stuck, Stalled, or Stopped
Small businesses (and leaders) grow to the size or capability of management and then get stuck. They often get stuck because the theories and concepts they’ve grown accustom to only work up to a certain size.
The small business with fewer than ten people has a different dynamic from the business that employs one hundred and ten thousand. Leadership principles in these organizations are similar, yet strategic and tactical deployment may be different.
Examining costs for training in any business should not be based only on dollars spent or time made available for training. There are many other intangible costs that should be considered.
The list is long but here are a few:
- Rework
- Drama
- Customer Experiences
- Technology
- Employee turnover
Some organizations that get stalled, stuck, or stopped, never recover. They stay there and slowly decline.
Training Time
I remember a rather successful CEO saying to me, “If we suggested people go to training right now, they would say they don’t have time and they wouldn’t be able to focus on the training because they would be too worried about the operation.”
On the surface it is hard to argue with that statement, yet, underneath the surface you have to question the culture (leadership) that drives that mindset.
Of course, there are times when every operation (especially small ones) need every hand on deck. The challenge may be determining when these times are real and when they become an excuse.
The real story here is that untrained employees are always more expensive than trained employees.
Trained employees will make decisions, they will make better decisions, quality will improve, commitment, engagement, and loyalty will all be better.
Training time may be the smallest price to pay.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
