Following Through on Training

It is impossible to overstate the importance of professional development for your employees, and the current economic environment in Asia — business growth with a shrinking labor pool — means you need the most highly skilled employees you can have. Bear in mind, though, that it’s easy to say “go get training,” but actually making it happen is another matter. There are some things you can do, though, to make it work.

The most important thing is to make sure people actually attend the training they have arranged to take. Chances are that if you sign them up for it then you are going to have to pay for it whether they attend or not. Since wasting money is never a good idea, you need to impress upon your employees that when they are scheduled for training, that’s their job for the day. If the training is off-site they should not come to the office for anything, and they should leave their phones put away for the day. Make sure they understand they score no extra points for skipping training in favor of work.

One reason people may skip out is that they see their leaders doing it. If you and your peers arrange training for yourselves, then you, too, have the obligation to go. You will set a poor example if you don’t. It’s easy to think that you are so important that you cannot afford to be gone for a day, but that is rarely the case. If you are really that critical, that’s a sign you should be delegating authority a bit more, or perhaps you have hired employees who need a little too much supervision.

Another reason your employees might bail out is because you tell them to go, but then don’t let them. If the organization’s leadership agrees that training is important then you need to release people to take that training. You may need to schedule their training around projects, or their projects around training, but whatever you do you need to deconflict their work requirements with their development requirements. Don’t schedule someone for a class when you know they have got a deadline, because one or the other is likely to be missed.

One reason you might not be letting people go is because you really don’t have enough people such that you can afford to have someone gone for a day or two or five. This does not mean you shouldn’t do employee development, but it DOES mean you have to do it more smartly. In order to meet your main priorities you have to make sure the work gets done even when people are off doing something important like professional development, which means either expanding the size of your team (not always an option) or being very deliberate in planning your team’s development (a much more likely option).

Lots of leaders talk about developing their team, but many of them do not follow through. It’s the kind of thing that sounds good in a meeting but can be tough to carry out. If you decide to take a step forward and provide training and education for your employees, especially if you see a good window of opportunity right now, then make a little extra effort to ensure it actually happens.