Training may come across as expensive and irrelevant to some CEOs. For others, training the employees may make them employable to other firms and will hence leave them investing a lot in their employees only for other organizations to benefit.
In response to these concerns, I often say yes, training programs are expensive depending on the organizations’ revenue or profit margin. However, through digitization and Artificial Intelligence (AI), some training programs are free online with certification included. Companies can also make one-time AI training program investments annually based on needs assessment and use these digitized training content for the year. Most importantly, hiring an in-house trainer is very instrumental in cutting down the cost of some training programs.
Training is not the only way to empower employees and reduce employee redundancy. Training without the necessary resources and a conducive environment negatively impacts employee performance.
There are some government organizations today and even private sector businesses where computers to work with are scare. There is no access to the internet and even washrooms are in a deplorable condition.
Imagine training employees to work in such an environment; it will definitely result in low productivity.
In addition, it is important to give employees challenging tasks that will prepare them adequately for the future. Enough of using national service personnel for printing and photocopy activities – they can do so much more.
Times are evolving. Graduates in other parts of the world are inventing and leading projects. Let’s not downplay the competence of our recent graduates. Let’s not make them redundant even before they enter the job market.
Senior managers should learn to delegate their responsibilities and coach their team to be up to the task.
To employees – you need to be more proactive and innovative in your field of work. Find out training programs online and share them with your department head or HR Manager. Don’t allow yourself to be redundant. If you are not being given challenging tasks, try and create a new role for yourself based on the organization’s needs and existing challenges that the organization is trying to tackle.
If not, you will be stuck in a job which has no chance of growth for you and the sad news is that you may not be employable in any other industry. More importantly, if you want to start your own business, you may not have the requisite skills to do so.
