A lot of clients have been asking us to help them with positioning training in their companies. Tight budgets have put restrictions on travel and any expenditure that doesn’t immediately impact the bottom line. Training budgets have been especially hard hit in companies that mostly see training as long-term skill development that you do when you have extra time and money—which is certainly not the situation today in most organizations.
It got me thinking about who needs training. If training is just for training’s sake, the answer is probably no one. But if it is training designed to help people be more productive on the job, serve customers better, or impact the bottom line in some way, then that’s a different story.
So who in your company needs to be more focused and productive? Who could benefit from managers better able to prioritize work, manage expectations, and provide support? There are probably a number of people depending on the situation your company is in.
- If you are in a growing industry with a lot of new people coming in, this is probably an easy question. New people always have training needs.
- If you’re in the middle of a merger, change effort, or even downsizing, you probably have some needs around getting people focused and productive. How can training help?
- If you’re holding your own in a tough economy, you probably have people who need help as well. (Sales and Marketing, for example). I’m guessing the pressure is on for these groups to perform right now. What can you offer in terms of training to help them perform better as a team, stay focused on goals, and get the direction and support they need to succeed?
In any of these three situations, training can help your organization immediately, and also position it for new growth in the future as the economy improves.