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Training - what is your plan?
Ron Browne • September 14, 2021
Every business should have both an L&D plan and budget
Training – what is your plan?
Learning is a lifelong process, for those who are open to it. Developing new skills, refining old ones and adapting to the ever-present changes in the workplace, are essential for everyone in your team.
By training your staff, and even your directors, in the skills appropriate to their input to your organisation, you lift the standard of performance and therefore the results the business can achieve.
Every business should have both an L&D (learning/training and development) plan and budget, to guide the development of staff and the board. Neither has to be complex or too extensive, but to have one is the first step on the journey to improving organisational performance.
Staff Training
Many businesses complain that ‘I train my staff…and then they leave’. I have often repeated Sir Richard Branson’s mantra – ‘Train your staff well enough so they can leave you, then treat them well enough so they don’t want to’. The other response the I learned in my time at Action Business Coaching was – ‘The alternative is you don’t train them…and they stay!’
One of our responsibilities as employers, and boards, is to offer our employees an opportunity to excel – be the best they can be
– and to achieve that result, training and developing them is critical. You will take the odd hit, with an employee you have invested in moving on anyway, but sometimes you have to let the chick fly the coop to set their own path.
Usually, when you invest in developing people, they feel more valued and will want to both contribute more and remain more loyal. And better trained staff perform better, invariably lifting the results for your organisation, from a profit and productivity point of view.
To establish a learning and development plan, you first need to do a simple training needs analysis, that starts with all employees filling out a skills matrix (as a self-assessment and available from me) which will identify where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Once you see where the team and individual gaps are, you can start to design the plan for both the individuals and the team (if needed).
The simple approach is to focus on the ‘task critical’ skills and see how they fit with an individual’s career path plan. Giving the individual team member some input into their own personal L&D plan is critical to ensure buy-in and commitment. Where the proposed skills training aligns with both the company’s goals and the individual’s career path, then there will be great synergy and greater compliance with the learning goals.
The plan can be for an individual to gain a qualification in a particular period of time, be it a single Unit of Competence (UoC), a Skill Set (a combination of UoCs), micro credentials (short courses) or full qualifications which can range from a certificate to a diploma or degree.
Whatever is the most appropriate form of training, including non-accredited training courses, will provide the most benefit to the learner who is consulted and agrees their plan.
L&D Budget
This is the point where many micro and small clubs enter a state of panic! We can’t afford to train our staff!! I counsel you to calm down and understand that you DO NOT
need to train every staff member every year.
Start small and as the results lift the organisation’s performance, your budget can grow. Some companies work on a percentage of turnover or payroll as a budget (remember the Training Guarantee Levy in the 90’s – 1.5 percent of your payroll allocated to training) and so you can start with as little as $1,000.00.
That can pay for one course worth $1,000.00 or two courses for $500.00 or five courses for $200.00. so even the smallest of businesses can make a start with a realistic budget and some research. Bringing in an outside trainer on a daily rate can often result in even more bang for your buck.
Over time, with the results of ongoing training, you will be able to plan and afford to train most staff on a regular basis to help them achieve their personal development and career path aspirations, whilst providing payback to the company in the form of improved results.
Director training
Where appropriate, if you have a board of directors, you should allocate budget for some professional development training for them too, to improve their knowledge and application of good governance principles. Conduct a skills assessment, similar to that for your staff, however the focus should lean more towards governance topics than operational, although naturally there will be some overlap.
Most often the key areas to invest in professional development for directors these days include, but are not limited to financial literacy, risk management, digital technology, cybersecurity and social media.
Remember that director training is aimed at improving the directors’ knowledge of areas that they need to oversee, as opposed to areas you want them to get involved in (operationally). A director cannot successfully oversee operations that they have no knowledge of, and whilst they do not need to become subject matter experts, they need to understand how operations look when executed properly.
Business Planning
In the Workforce Review article in January 2021, I mentioned part of your business planning – specifically strategic planning – entails reviewing what your workforce needs to look like, now and into the future, to meet the needs of your customers. This means you may identify new skills and knowledge that have not been required in the past, but will definitely be needed in the future if your business is to survive.
As I mentioned in the March article about strategic planning – the benefit of the plan is in the planning – and so it is with the L&D Plan. In creating the plan, you are required to establish the current skills and knowledge of your team, to identify where you may need to provide support training. The side benefit is you may discover hidden talents in your team through the skills assessment process, where you can redeploy someone to the greater benefit of the organisation, as well as identifying the best training plan for that individual.
If you need assistance to conduct a skills assessment/training needs analysis to start an L&D plan for your organisation, talk to Ron Browne, Managing Partner, Extrapreneur Services on 0414 633 423
or ron@extrapreneurservices.com.au
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