HR: Post and responses – Why T&D?
Training and development activities are sadly often first on the chopping block when it is time for budget cuts. Imagine that you are an HR employee working in Talent Management. Your boss has come to you announcing that we will be suspending training and reducing our development activities. Your job in this week’s discussion forum is to convince him/her otherwise by selling him on the benefits of T&D activities. Why are these critical to an organization’s success? What are some of the organizational problems we can solve by using T&D activities? Please be specific in your answer, e.g., you could talk specifically about the importance of a mentoring program or an orientation program, instead of talking about T&D in general.
YOU WILL HAVE TO RESPONSE TO 3 STUDENTS I WILL UPLOAD LATER
11 hours ago
Mike Taylor
Discussion Board week #6 Mike Taylor
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Training and development are essential for businesses to flourish. When your manager wants to cut T&D, it is not really a smart move. This is because employees are a company’s greatest asset and investing in your employees is a vital for success and sustainable growth for the future. According to (Gallup) “workgroups that engaged in employee development saw a sales increase and profits double compared to workgroups that did not engage at all.” This is one of the many reasons why your manager should not cut corners and suspend training and reducing the developmental strategies just to save cost. In addition, according to (2018, Workplace Learning Report) “Investing in your staff’s professional development is fundamental for team retention to the point that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development.” One of the many reasons why managers should think twice in not cutting T&D in their workplace. Replacing employee talent might cost more than retaining the employees you originally had. Also, according to (Gallup) “38% of the US workforce is powered by millennials, and in 2025 it is estimated to grow to 75%. However, the rate of turnover amongst millennials is high roughly 50% plan to be with the company one year from now. Gallup estimated that employee replacement costs can be upwards to 150% of the worker’s annual salary, or more.” This is a great point and really emphasizes how much managers should evaluate if cutting T&D is the correct way for the employer. With this information and proven groundwork that T&D is successful, I would explain how this is detrimental towards the employer. Noticing that 94% of employees would stay at the company if they showed interest in developing them into learning or sharpening their skills is astonishing. It just goes back to active listening and truly being invested with your employees, thus they will be invested in the company.
State of the global workplace. (2017). New York, NY: Gallup Press.
(2018). “2018 Workplace Learning Report”. Retrieved from Linkedin Learning. https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/en-us/pdfs/linkedin-learning-workplace-learning-report-2018
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13 hours ago
Jennifer
Tran
DB 6
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Hello Darron,
I was very disappointed to hear that the company has made the decision to suspend training and reduce our development activities. I understand that this decision was not decided lightly, but I am hopeful that I can change your mind. As you know, with the pandemic in full motion, we have seen a decrease in company morale. With the help of more development activities, we will be able to show our employees how much they are valued. The activities do not have to be anything costly but reducing our development activities, it will hurt our employee retention efforts. A new research found that, “more than 600 US businesses with 50-500 employees, 63.3% of companies say retaining employees is actually harder than hiring them (Smarp, 2020).” This statistic has been found to be true before the pandemic and has since most likely gone up since the pandemic. The article also expresses, “When employees feel engaged, they care about the company and they do their best work to achieve the company’s goals (Smarp, 2020).” This is the exact time and place where we should be engaging our employees more with development activities to create a stronger relationship surrounded by trust and value. This can in return create fear amongst the employees and encourage them to seek other employment.
In regards to training, suspending our initiatives at a time like this will not be a smart decision. Managers need us more than ever when it comes to training. COVID-19 has created this new territory that has been difficult to navigate through with the resources given. If we suspend the training programs, we will be telling our managers that we do not care about their success and we won’t be able to help them if they need. It is imperative that we invest in training our managers now so that they know how to react when employee’s ask difficult questions. If we do not take the time and money to train the managers now, then we open our company up to a lot of liability. For example, if an employee gets COVID-19 and goes to the manager, they need to know how to react. If we suspend all training of managers, it could be handled poorly and could risk exposure to others which can lead to lawsuits.
Having cuts in these two very important driving factors of employee retention will be detrimental to the company in the future. I thank you for your time and hope that you will reconsider the cuts of these two departments. Should you have further questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Best,
Jennifer
Resources:
8 Employee Engagement Statistics You Need to Know in 2020. (2020, August 11). In Smarp. Retrieved from https://blog.smarp.com/employee-engagement-8-statistics-you-need-to-know
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13 hours ago
Janet Maloy
DB Post week 6 T&D
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It is unfortunate that the company has chosen to suspend training and development. As I am sure you would agree, training and development are critical to success of an organization because it allows the company to achieve its business goals through competitive advantage (Noe et al, 2019). Without T&D, the organization and employees will both be worse off.
According to the website indeed.com, training boosts skills and knowledge which makes employees more effective and efficient while gaining confidence and with the support of the company, they end up boosting morale along the way. Also, as workers become more skilled, the organization can promote from within and ultimately save money by not having to go into the labor market to recruit additional talent (The Importance of Training Employees: 11 Benefits 2020). There are many types of training and the benefits are measurable, but perhaps the most recognizable would be demonstrating financial results by showing that training and development have a direct return on investment, such as employee retention (Noe et al, 2019).
Training and development programs such as tuition reimbursement which can be a win-win for both the employer and the employees. As employees receive the benefit of having their tuition paid while gaining education and knowledge, companies reap benefits as well. Many will think of the tangible benefit of the tax right off of $5,250 per employee per year, but it is also a personal development tool and a benefit that allows an organization to attract and retain talent.
These are just a couple of examples of how T&D can benefit both the employees and the company and I would encourage the leadership to re-engage training and development initiatives, even if in a limited capacity, as soon as possible.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R & Gerhart, B. A. (2019). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
The Importance of Training Employees: 11 Benefits. (2020, September 9). Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/importance-of-training
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