Corporate training: A new imperative

03 June 2006

The global business environment has never been as intensely competitive as at present. This has forced companies to 'create improved efficiencies', 'downsize', 'right-size', 'cut costs' and 'streamline processes'. These and many other such phrases are now very familiar parts of corporate-speak. But, whatever terms one may use, any or all of these terms are part of the effort of creating success stories from low investments, to produce great results. Easier said than done, you may say, and quite rightly so. For a company to be successful today, its workforce, which has to 'do' the needful, must be:

• Diverse
• Innovative
• Insightful
• Knowledgeable

This can only be achieved by investing in and upgrading an organisation's most valuable asset — its people — by giving them ongoing training and education. Earlier, companies thought employee training and development were optional but not essential for growth, a viewpoint that turned out to be expensive, both in terms of short-term profits and long-term progress.

In today's economy, if your people are not given a continuously learning environment, your company's going to fall behind; a business evolves only as its people learn. The employees are the ones that produce, refine, protect, deliver and manage the company's products and / or service every day, year in, year out. In the rapidly changing business dynamics of the 21st century marketplace, continual learning is critical to a business's continued success.

Beyond remuneration
Success clearly lies in treating employees well, especially in people-intensive industries like retail, banking, transportation, government, healthcare and customer service. Employer should realise that compensation is only a small part of this equation. Many service leaders, including Wal-Mart for example, pay employees substantially less than their competitors do, but manage to retain them because they treat them so well, train them, praise them, and respect them irrespective of their roles.

The training industry in India has acquired new dimensions in the recent past. Training has come out of the HR closet and evolved to become an effective business tool. More than an employee retention tool, training has evolved to become a critical business enabler for effective sales, leadership, relationship building, increased production, etc; it is increasingly being linked to business outcomes. This evolution underlines how every organisation needs to optimally deploy its most critical resource — people — efficiently, to effectively impact business results.