Masonry Magazine October 1998 Page. 18
Employee Training: A Paradox
Employee training is a paradox and reminds me of the cartoon I watched as a child where the lead character would weigh a decision in his mind, all the while aided by a good little angel whispering in his right ear and a malevolent little devil grumbling in his left. Well, the decision on whether or not to offer your employees formalized training can conjure up its own pair of pixies, who we'll dub "TT" (to train) or "NTT" (not to train).
TT is the good angel, of course, and she only imparts the benefits received from training. That would make NTT the troublemaker, a true devil's advocate, and he'll only show you the dark side of the training decision. Deciding who to ultimately listen to will depend on many factors and include considerations ranging from your company's financial situation to the extent of faith that you have in the employee who's being considered for training. It's not an easy decision and never as clear-cut as it first may appear. So, let's examine the good and the bad of the training dilemma.
To Train (The Good)
"Why would anyone not want to train employees?", you might ask. Certainly, the benefits seem clear and laudable. Logically, it's easy to conclude that formalized training will increase the skill levels of your people out in the field, and in turn bring you:
* Increased productivity though a greater knowledge of the trade
* Enhanced company image from more knowledgeable and professional crews
* Greater individual employee self-esteem through a feeling of personal self-improvement
* Increased owner satisfaction
* Higher profits from the accumulative effect of all those items above
So, with all this going for the good side isn't the decision to train a no-brainer? Well, not exactly. Let's hear from the other side of the debate.
Not to Train (The Bad)
No business decision is easy and the training decision is certainly no different. If you contemplate it long enough, it seems that for every positive, pro-active benefit you come up with for training you can also find a correspondingly eroding reason to hold off. Some of these reasons include:
"The Triple Dollar Whammy"
If you think about it, the employer takes a triple hit in the pocketbook when offering employee training. 1 call this the "triple dollar whammy" and it goes something like this:
The first part of the whammy is the cost of the training sessions themselves. If you've checked the flyers and magazines lately, you may have noticed that many private training programs can run into hundreds of dollars for a day's training. Understandably, an employer would need to be very comfortable that the session would provide the positive results he desires before sinking that kind of money into it.
The second bite comes from the lost revenue due to the employee actually being at the training and not being on site working. After all, that's how money is made in this business and when a training attendee isn't out in the field working, no profit is being generated for the company. It becomes