Need for Training and Development

Training and development are important for all businesses and are particularly critical for small organizations. Experienced, competent people contribute to both the productivity and profitability of the company. Remaining competitive depends in large measure on ensuring that your workforce is trained and up to date with ever-changing skills and knowledge, especially in today’s global economy, in which keeping up with new methods is so important. Despite the clear need to keep employees current, small organizations often show a reluctance to train. This can be due to cost or the desire not to have people away from their job for any length of time.

While training and development can be expensive—anywhere from $200 to $1,000 per day—it is still considered worthwhile in terms of achieving the long-term benefits of the company and the individual. Training expenses accrue not only from the actual cost of providing on- or off-the-job training, but also from loss of productivity while employees are away being trained. Nonetheless, it is still necessary to provide this training; otherwise, companies discover how easy it is to fall behind both in terms of competence and meeting customers’ needs.

There is another component to this reluctance, however. Many companies fear that if their employees are too well trained, they will move to another employer that pays more or offers other opportunities. In order to overcome this, some companies will train an employee so that he or she can be promoted to the next level within the organization and will want to stay with it.