Skills Development submission time is on the horizon (April) when Annual Training Reports and Workplace Training Plans need to be submitted.
When it comes to the implementation of training and the development of staff members, companies are quick to avoid it for the following reasons:
- Training is too expensive
- High turnover of staff (“We train them and then they leave”)
- Training takes too much time away from production
- There are no long-term benefits
- Skills are not always transferred back into the workplace
In most organisations, training is considered a “nice to have” when there is available funding, but the moment a company runs into financial constraints, the first thing to be ditched is training because companies mostly focus on the negative but very seldom look at the reasons why training is important.
Training can improve business performance, profit and staff morale.
In addition, advantages to your business include:
- choosing which new skills your workforce needs and targeting those skills to meet the needs of your operations for now and in the future
- ensuring that the training of your staff results in better customer service, better work safety practices, and improved production
- demonstrating to your workforce that you value them enough to invest in them, which improves loyalty and staff retention. In turn, staff retention is a saving to the organisation as new staff don’t have to trained again.
In addition, training has many benefits for your staff:
- they acquire new skills, increasing their contribution to the business and building their self-esteem
- the training they do can take them into other positions within the organisation – positions with better prospects and/or better pay
- they are upskilled to do new and different tasks, which keeps them motivated and fresh
How would one make Human Resource development financially worth it?
In South Africa, legislation has forced companies to only focus on compliance training or training that will benefit the company on the BBBEE scorecard. Both are important, but should ultimately not form part of the main reason for training and developing staff members.
When considering what training should take place in the workplace, it is vital to consider the gaps that may be present in the company:
- lack of productivity
- high staff turnover
- lack of client satisfaction
- lack of innovation and creativity
- lack of motivation and efficiency
A company that is experiencing any of the above should start focusing on the training and development of its staff. With the correct selection of training programmes that not only focus on the company’s needs but also the scarce skills identified in the industry by the relevant SETA, the company can further benefit financially when it comes to Mandatory and Discretionary funding from the SETA’s as well as receiving a possible tax incentive for Learnerships.
Measuring the Return of Investment when training is implemented, is extremely important to ensure that it contributes not only to the growth and success of the company but most importantly adds to the company’s bottom line.
For more information on the above topic, please contact the LabourNet Helpdesk at 0861 LABNET (0861 522638).
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