All who have spoken to a hiring manager has heard the complaint that good people are just too hard to find. The secret is that the reason for this isn’t that there aren’t any good people. There are plenty of highly skilled and qualified employees in the workforce. They just don’t go on the market – they’re just too darned happy where they are. A big part of the reason for this is that they didn’t necessarily start out as highly skilled and qualified, but were brought to that level through management coaching and competent business.
Sure, many CEO’s have a Harvard MBA, but well below the CEO level, the fact is that a large percentage of management started out at the bottom. There’s not much reality to the old quip “Why back in my day, you started at the bottom – and by God, you stayed there!” In fact, everyone knows that competent training management (often called “on the job training”) is one of the chief ways companies have of increasing the worth of their in-house talent. And this worth doesn’t just leave the company.
Employees want to know that they are important to their companies. Investing in an employee validates their contribution. The various forms of training management let them know that their company is willing to help them become more successful. This results in employees feeling a greater stake in their company and being less enthusiastic to work elsewhere.
The other dirty secret is that training management leaves a company whose employees don’t know exactly what they’re worth. Unlike the Harvard MBA, they don’t have a piece of paper that suddenly makes them much more expensive to hire. At the same time, they are often just as motivated, or more so, after taking on the job training (while being paid!) than someone slugging through academia. This is one many reasons companies are eager for training management.
Change management is another function of a company, just as important as training management. Would that the market never moved! That once we designed a product, we could keep selling it forever. But the fact is that change is a constant part of our world, and even a product as venerable as Coke gets a redesign from time to time – not to mention the ad campaigns. Through continuous management, a company is able to keep its workforce very fresh.
Diplomas last forever, but changes occur continuously in the world of business. But even Harvard sees change occur all around it and must adapt. Change management helps your company stay current in an ever-changing world. Such management helps your business in the lead in the marketplace and help you develop employees to be the best they can be.
There are not many skilled people available in the job market because they are happy where they are. A major reason for this is that they did not necessarily start out as highly skilled and qualified as they have become, but were elevated to that level through constant and competent business and management coaching. When workers see that a company invests in them, through conferences, seminars, and other forms of training management, they see that they are working for a company that cares about them. Through effective change management, a company is able to keep its workforce very new and motivated all the time.
- George Purdy