The 2014 study from Bersin by Deloitte, showed that businesses increased their training budgets by 15 percent with a strategic focus on building the skills of their leadership team and career road-mapping. The dollars spent ranged from $1,169 per learner all the way up to $1,847 per learner (technology companies ranking the highest). If you break it down into hours, 66.5 hours spent training salaried employees and 53 hours spent training hourly employees (40 percent focused on development). These statistics provide a big picture analysis in the strategic direction leading companies are moving towards in order to combat the skills shortage in the marketplace.

Invest In Your Peeps

The success or failure of a company comes down to the people that make up the organization. Every business that is successful understands the importance of having intelligent and passionate people working throughout every department. There is nothing more important than finding these types of people and developing them in order to have each one motivated daily to operate as their best selves. Don’t lose focus in all the daily operational activities that your employees become the last point of focus at the end of the day. By investing a certain percentage each year on your employees, your company will experience more engaged and productive employees, interests in growing year after year with the company, and a high return on investment each year.  Companies thrive when the focus is on their peeps!!!

Career Road-Mapping

One of the questions I ask every candidate during the hiring process is “If you were sitting at your desk in 3 years looking at your business card, what title would be listed under your name?” One of the reasons I ask this question is because if the candidate is offered and accepts, it provides the foundation for the manager to develop a career path for the employee. The manager is able to define the necessary steps for the candidate to get from A to B to C in a progressive amount of time.  Plus, the manager is able to evaluate the gaps in knowledge and talent and make adjustments along the way. Every manager within the organization should have a career path established for all their direct reports.  It is so important to invest in your employees careers, as it is a win-win for both the employee and the company. Companies must remain invested in their employees or be continuously in the market to replenish them.

Believe In Your Leaders

I was fortunate enough to grow up on a farm with lots of land to explore on a daily basis. In one of these explorations, I found myself lost in a thicket. When reality hit that I did not know the way back out, I became extremely terrified and started pushing my way through the thicket. The branches ripped my shirt and shorts, along with scratching my skin from head to toe. After several minutes of this torture, I fell to the ground crying in fear and looked up at the sun coming through the thicket for comfort. As an 8 year old child, I remember having a deep sense of being forever lost within this never ending maze. For a moment, I closed my eyes in order to seek comfort and heard my fathers voice. He is a no bullshit kind of guy and tells you the hard truth with all of life matters. In this moment, his voice said, “Get your ass up, wipe your tears, and use the brain that God gave you in order to find your own way out.” I opened my eyes and began listening and observing everything for a few minutes.

The creek was flowing at the bottom of the hill, there were larger areas in some of the bushes allowing easier passage, the sun was to my back (west), which told me home was straight ahead (east). I turned over on my belly and began crawling through the thicket and within 5 to 10 minutes re-entered familiar territory. This experience taught me to believe in the leaders that were guiding me through life, as this allowed my internal compass to remain on target in order to produce a very positive and rewarding outcome.  The generational investment of coaching from grandfather to father to daughter was producing another member of the family that was using the teachings to maneuver successfully through life.

“You will never find your way, by keeping doors closed.”

Invest in your leaders, so they continue opening doors for the employees and the company.

See The Possibilities

Companies that continue hiring outside the company are missing out on a huge opportunity for fast track strategic growth. Investing in your employees is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to ensure a companies continual success. The best companies invest in training and development of their employees, yielding a huge return on investment year after year.

“Greatness, whether athletic or otherwise, doesn’t come from those content on just being but from those who seek being the difference.”