The value of investing in staff training

I was watching a documentary about Cheetahs, the cheetah was captured on film stalking, chasing, and killing a gazelle, one bite and the gazelle was done.

The Cheetah looked up and around after taking down the gazelle, it noticed a pack of hyenas eyeing his catch, within no time, the cheetah was forced up a tree, only to look down on the Hyenas taking over and devouring his kill, after he did all the hard work.

Similar in business, some people do the heavy lifting , others pounce in to take credit.

Changing dynamics - impacting your operations

• The UN great reset supported by various regions and level of government

• The green New Deal

• Climate Change and

• Carbon Taxes

There is a housing crisis, a health care crisis, an education crisis, an employment crisis, a mental health crisis, and an addiction crisis. Let’s not kid ourselves with illusions about confinement, which is like a lid on the pot: the current climate is gloomy at best, eruptive at worst, in any case very unstable. Everywhere, poverty and anger are increasing.

The UN Statement “To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed.”

Companies can and should do much more to bring down their own business waste and emissions.

Beyond retaining their social licence to operate, this is mainly about companies managing risks, preparing for anticipated changes in regulations and preparing their business models for a low-carbon future.

Many executives share a common view that acting on waste mitigation zero emissions and climate is not only a responsibility, but also a source of competitive advantage in their respective sectors – in terms of reducing cost, fulfilling the needs of future customers and social responsibility.

To become a more sustainable, efficient and profitable organization, with a substantially lower risk profile and a greater capability to rapidly adapt to change, organizations must ready their organization and change behaviors and culture that will enable and support continuous change.

Most organizations are structured by departments and program areas, by default this structure does not support dynamic change and demands in a reasonable time with minimum costs. The result of this inaction is increased costs, longer project durations, under performing infrastructure and client and stakeholder frustration, ultimately it impacts the bottom line and your ability to stay relevant, and profitable.

Today, companies’ survival and operational plans based on being flexible and quick to change in order to survive. Companies embark on new programs to train their employees to ready and prepare for continuous change.

Much of this training is, unfortunately, worthless, with less than 23% benefits realized from staff training.

What is going wrong and how can we fix it?

Most training programs and decisions on who should be trained lack focus. Companies don’t train employees in the skills most critical to the business’s stage of maturity and transformation path, they send the wrong people to the training, over-train them and spend too little time and effort on implementation of learned skills. As a result, the training is lost over time.

No plan to implement learning from training

Often programs fall short of being both relevant and useful—criteria that should be mandatory. Relevant and actionable training enriches your operations and stakeholder experiences, energizes staff and ideally influences culture change making staff more involved and loyal in the company.

Relevant and actionable training offers a practical skill critical to this stage of organizational development. It should be essential to the job you have to perform in the next six months — not the next two or three years. Any implementation of training not implemented within two to six months will soon be forgotten or will create ad hoc implementation and chaos.

Many organizations, are their own worst enemies and attempt to hold training and team building workshops in boring long-drawn-out sessions that are typically ineffective. The most effective training is done in short bites, with access to instructor support and coaching post learning.

So how do you fix these problems? It takes a reality check

We can help you plan to train later. For training to have real value, your company must first have a clear strategy and execution plan in place. Your strategy should clearly articulate the core skills and capabilities required to support the functions and their interdependencies that will make execution possible. Your training should then focus on these skills and competencies. Otherwise, it is probably just a nice idea and a costly waste of time.

Anyone selected to attend the training should be those responsible for acting on it. If they won’t be on the front lines using it, they shouldn’t be there. They won’t be sufficiently invested in absorbing what is being taught.

Real life experience trumps fancy diplomas

To avoid training that is mind-numbing or useless, make sure the trainers have actually worked in your field. Try a small engagement with a trainer before committing to a bigger one. One way to tell a good practitioner is whether he or she makes things look and sound simple and is focused on action.

Plan for sprints, not a marathon.

Many trainers will encourage long sessions because these fit better into their travel schedule. Resist their pressure and find someone willing to offer shorter sessions.

Let’s say you’re doing transformation training. Devote about 10% of employees’ time to training, 50% to implementation, 40% to repetition and teaching others and 10% to analysis of results. Programs should be a series of sprints: train, implement, train, implement, until what is learned becomes a habit.

Road test the training.

During the implementation and repetition phase, give employees access to tools and environments where they can apply and practice what they’ve learned. The environment and tools are the bridge between theory, actual knowledge and practicality.

Spend less, not more.

Successful training doesn’t require millions of dollars. Using more effective methods will reduce what you spend. You do, however, need to commit time to implementation, repetition and assessment of what you’ve learned for several months after the initial training session — or your training won’t work.

We constantly assess and identify the core skills and competences that we need to best support industries current environment. We constantly assess, interview and investigate topics among all our clients and stakeholders and target workshops to mitigate Social, Economic, Environmental and Geo Political (SEEC-GP) risks and consumer demands while optimizing all resources across the value chain. best practices, theories and concepts in these areas.

We help you identify Who will implement What — and When that will happen. Training without implementation is just a journey away from the office, lost opportunity and productivity costs.

The question to ask yourself is: What benefit will be realized form the training and by when? If not, don’t waste your time and money.

Reasons to Spend Money on Training Your People

Training opportunities increase employee retention.

Training is cheaper than replacing.

Training your employees enables you to be more flexible when it comes to delegating responsibility and encouraging staff to take on multiple roles and responsibilities. Internal training also allows for more specialized talent to be deployed when needed, thus giving you the upper hand whenever a problem could potentially arise.

Regular training is a must for staying relevant and supporting industry trends and technologies.

A huge problem with many organizations is not about getting ahead in business – it is about not falling behind! Regardless of business sector, business and service delivery models along with emerging industrial and technical advancements abound in our operational environment. Now more than ever it is absolutely crucial that businesses and professionals alike ensure that their work reflects client value and stakeholder relevance.

With competition being as higher as ever and compliance growing in complexities, scheduling regular training for your employees will give them the chance to stay up to date and readily adapt to the dynamic changes. As a result, they will be more efficient and productive, allowing you to keep up with client demands, competition and profitability.

The more your people know, the more the business grows.

It is a known fact that it is cheaper to retain employees than to bring in new people. When it comes to filling an open position, training a current employee in a new skill and moving said person between roles or departments is a potential cost savings. Preparing and equipping an employee with the skills to take on more or different responsibilities is a fantastic opportunity to increase collaboration and interdependencies and break down departmental silos and thereby avoid duplicate labor or processes and most of all, ensure that various teams understand who they depend on and what others depend on them for to enable an integrated working environment and achieve core business objectives.

Thanks to our online training, resource access is easier than ever before.

There are many numerous advantages that online training programs offer, which is applicable to any industry, business, and employee at any location. Some of these include:

• Instructor lead with near real time

• Targeted and more affordable for your organization

• Accommodates varied new and different learning styles

• Curriculum is designed in guidance with industry needs to develop job-ready skills

• All workshops are self-driven and self-paced with accountabilities in place

• Blend of online learning and live virtual classroom training with mentorship and practical assignments to get results

• Results are measurable and actionable

• Reduced costs of learning, travel, meals and lost time

The gap from training to implementation must shorten to be successful.

The benefit realization of training to action transfer and implementation of knowledge into the workplace is usually a difficult, bumpy and if it is actually occurring. Our workshops are targeted towards specific challenges the company is facing and are conducted in a work environment.

Skills development brings everyone together.

As companies grow it becomes harder and harder to get everyone in the same room, on the same page and make decisions without personal biases.

Our workshops will introduce participants to the technique of learning what you want to teach others as a response to the rapid changes in clients demands, processes, resource availability, technology, population, and economic activity that are transforming the world, and as a way to deal with the ever-increasing complexity of today's business.

Systematic or common-sense thinking was devised to improve people's ability to manage organizations comprehensively in a volatile global environment. It offers managers a framework for understanding complex situations and the dynamics that those situations produce. Senior managers can use the System Dynamics Method (SDM) to design policies that lead their organizations to high performance. The program is intended to give participants the tools and confidence to manage organizations with full understanding and solid strategy.

Participants will experience a specific game, simulating the supply chain of your industry. In so doing, it illuminates aspects of system dynamics, and illustrates the nonlinear complexities of supply chains and the way individuals are circumscribed by the systems in which they act.

Our workshops will introduce participants to the technique of learning what you want to teach others as a response to the rapid changes in clients demands, processes, resource availability, technology, population, and economic activity that are transforming the world, and as a way to deal with the ever-increasing complexity of today's business.

Systematic or common-sense thinking was devised to improve people's ability to manage organizations comprehensively in a volatile global environment. It offers managers a framework for understanding complex situations and the dynamics that those situations produce. Senior managers can use the System Dynamics Method (SDM) to design policies that lead their organizations to high performance. The program is intended to give participants the tools and confidence to manage organizations with full understanding and solid strategy.

Participants will experience a specific game, simulating the supply chain of your industry. In so doing, it illuminates aspects of system dynamics, and illustrates the nonlinear complexities of supply chains and the way individuals are circumscribed by the systems in which they act.

RG Learning Plan – is an organized description of the activities and resources used to guide a group toward a specific learning objective or Issue Identification. We follow a human-centered approach to sustainability, resource optimization and tech integration to support desired outcomes. We draw from our toolkit to integrate the needs of people, industry and the possibilities of technology, with the requirements for business success.

Our Goal - Make risk mitigation and change a habit in your organization!

The Pandemic and social disruption crisis confirms and highlights that companies are about people designing, manufacturing products and delivering services for people!

In the current economic and social conditions, companies are stepping up to the challenges and situational awareness extractions of the pandemic!

How are you managing?

@ ResultantGroup we want to share your experiences, lessons learned and successes, send us your story to be included in our monthly publications to 12k+ industry leaders.

Email: info@resultantgroup.com

Complete your Resource Optimization picture with support from ResultantGroup, we simplify business complexities!

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Dave Gajadhar is an Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and an Advocate for Human prosperity and resource optimization at Resultant Group, business modernization, waste mitigation. Supply chain integration and transition advisors.

Phone: (780) 483-4800

e-mail Dgajadhar@ResultantGroup.com

or contact through

Twitter: @dgajadar

At ResultantGroup and RG Academy, we assist companies in identifying what matters to each of your stakeholders, active participants and clients across your value chain. This enables your organization to optimize resources, monetize excess material and enable your sustainability reporting to convey the business’ unique story reflecting how your business is genuinely managed in a shared, circular economy and demand driven.

Check our event and workshop schedule online at Resultantgroup.com

Visit @ResultantGroup to learn more about our advisory master classes.