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Staff training and professional development – why it's not about ticking boxes

WRITTEN BYJames Price | JPAbusiness

When an employee decides to ‘get on the bus’ every morning and come to work for you, there are a range of factors that affect their decision. Some of these may include:

  • remuneration
  • work conditions
  • outside influences like market pressures, for e.g. booms or busts in the mining industry
  • the organisation’s culture i.e. whether it is proactive and positive, or punishing and negative
  • personal situation
  • opportunities for training and professional development (T&PD) and career progression.

If their decision relates to training and professional development and career progression, chances are you’ll have more of a staff retention problem if you consider this area as a box ticking exercise.

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Box ticking means there is no context, no sell down, and limited appreciation of the value and relevance, both from the individual and the company, of the time invested by the individual in T&PD and the money spent by the company.

To get stickier staff in your company, don’t just tick the box.

Focus on T&PD as part of the broader people management processes, because we all know if we feel good and proficient in our roles, we’re more likely to keep doing them.

Further to that, if we have a view on where our career track is headed and how we might get there in terms of extra skills and capabilities, that’s an even bigger incentive to stay.

Sometimes that outlook changes, and sometimes individuals are best to leave an organisation in order to get broader experience. That’s just the market at work.

But if you have those two things lined up – the short-term feeling of proficiency and achievement, and the longer-term feeling of direction and something to aim for – you have the right ingredients for a more stable workforce and the potential for higher staff retention.

If you would like support to manage the training and professional development needs of your staff, contact the business advisory team at JPAbusiness for a confidential, obligation-free discussion.

About James Price | JPAbusiness James Price has over 30 years’ experience in providing strategic, commercial and financial advice to Australian and international business clients. James’ blogs provide business advice for aspiring and current small to mid-sized business owners, operators and managers.