Costs of Training Versus No Costs in Training. Attitude Specialist Janice Davies Auckland New Zealand

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Costs of Training Versus No Costs in Training

According to the new Victoria University survey, the most “in demand” skills for top academic achievers are listed below:

Strong Verbal and interpersonal communication
Problem solving skills
Sound academic achievement
Self-motivated/Self-management/Self Starter
Analytical and conceptual understands
Flexible and adaptable “can-do” attitude
Team Player
Strong written communication
Energy and enthusiasm
Be creative and innovative

These sound great, but the challenge is to find staff members with many of these skills. It’s virtually impossible. People have a dominant personality, which means there skills excel in one domain. The front-line receptionist with the bubbly personality, who has the energy, enthusiasm and strong verbal interpersonal communication, is not interested in the balance sheet figures. And the accountant, who understands and is passionate about analytical and conceptual matters, would be bored meeting and greeting clients. Understanding personality styles equips managers with the skills to employ people with the right skills in their respective areas.

A company in the United States was having sales and customer difficulties. The Heads of Departments who were involved in the recruitment, all had MA Degrees. Therefore to them it became imperative for new staff members to be equally qualified. However when sales dropped and customer service departments received numerous
complaints, they called in a consultant. Quickly the consultant discovered the employers had not realised that different skills from different personalities were imperative for the business to succeed.

In all businesses people with analytical skills are necessary for the research and accounting data. Caregivers and nurturers are essential for customer service. The sales team, searching for new business and making the deals are imperative for the business to move ahead. These are often the people that provide creative new ideas that are
forthcoming in keeping the business with new products and services. The business owners and managers need to focus on setting the deadlines and goals that can steer the company forward and have all departments successfully working together.

A lack of understanding of these crucial factors result in failed businesses and office squabbles. Why does the receptionist in her bright clothing, barge into the office in the morning and call out “Hello everyone, what a fabulous day” in a loud voice. Why does the computer analyst get annoyed when it interrupts his concentration? Why do
some office staff want music? Why do others wear dark conservative clothing and enjoy peace and the solicitude of being locked in their office all day? An understanding of different personality styles by all members of staff result in
improved office politics, less conflict and teams working together.

Each person usually has one personality style as dominant, and the others in varying degrees. Doing different tasks calls for different areas of your expertise. Writing and speaking calls forth my creative traits, running the business managerial and organisational skills, mothering my nurturing skills and my biggest problem is my
analytical expertise, which is the least dominant of my personality traits. Completing my accounts is a real chore. However understanding this gives me power over myself as I realise my inadequacies and require assistance in this arena. Additionally my years of personal growth have resulted in a more balanced personality and better all
round results achieved.

Whereas once I was a square peg in a round hole, with my knowledge and understanding personalities I can now perform better as a round peg in a round hole. You may have employees where you can recognise their skills in different areas from where they’re working and they’re unhappy and not performing effectively. It’s more
efficient for you to relocate them in your business. They may be in the wrong hole. Understanding staff in the business is only part of the process to ensuring effective and productive business. The February 2001 statistics show that 277,969 non-farming enterprises were on the Statistics NZ Business Frame. Property and business services has the largest number of enterprises with 88,166 enterprises engaging over 183,000 full-time equivalent persons. The manufacturing industry is the largest employer with 234,890 full-time equivalent person engaged in employment.

For the future of New Zealand it becomes imperative that these business and those employed in them are successful and striving to improve New Zealand’s future. Stephen Tindall, founder of The Warehouse is investing $100 million of his own money and time in helping finding New Zealand’s equivalent to Nokia. He is a person that has placed people first in his business, trained and valued them, which according to the Universal Law of Abundance is something everyone must do.

To ensure this success people need to understand

Change - the speed & need to keep abreast of it.
Leadership is innovative in growing the people & customer care.
Communication needs to be adult to adult and effective
Conflict & diversity - out of this dilemma comes growth
Creative Problem Solving helps to ensure positive outcomes.
Team Learning, in business at home and in New Zealand.

The TEAMS FROM WOE TO GO Programme covers all these vital areas necessary to run a smooth effective business allowing the Managers to 30% more time to work ON the business not IN the business.

This is possible with foresight and the understanding by CEO’s, business owners and managers about the importance of improving peoples’ skills base. Managers can then able free up their time, after coaching their staff and then work on the business not in it. Furthermore this encourages employees to think and act like owners, not
dependents. It vastly improves people’s value in the business and long-term happiness and success, which is paramount in this fast paced changing society. Additionally it ensures that more of the skills surveyed by the Victoria University are found in your staff members. Without it, businesses of the future are under performing
With the pace of life today, people are changing their attitude to work. Society no longer supports a person being employed and working up the ladder over fifty years of employment. Employees are interested in ‘finding who they are” and then living their lives accordingly. They’re searching for their passion and values and finding
employment that are congruent. This includes a balance of time for themselves, their families, their career, community and spiritually. For some staff and bosses, it’s a real struggle to establish and maintain a balanced life, however it’s helps ensure the path to happiness and ultimately peak performance. That’s what both employee and
employer must strive for.

‘Putting People First’, an article written by P Smith & R Birchfield, states that New Zealand is suffering a skills shortage. Good people are hard to find, even though some may be returning to our shores. However they are even harder to retain. The importance of individuals to a company’s’ success is growing. What matters is the way people are led, valued, acknowledged, challenged, rewarded and cared for. People are no longer labour commodities.

A large educational institute has received three letters from me. The first in reply to a letter questioning my work ethics, even though I achieved (with integrity) excellent results. The second when cheating students were allowed back into the classroom and I questioned the values of the tutors versus the mighty dollar. The third when private
funds were used for work expenses. Then the accounts department caused a three week delay before I could reuse my finances.

These three incidents were also important to fellow staff members who had experienced similar situations. Therefore writing to management’s we expected a reply or acknowledgment of the letters. Nothing has been received yet. One day when they’re expecting good results from their staff they’ll wonder why they’re not getting
it.

Business owners expect good results from employees, is it not fair to expect the the reverse. Happy fulfilled staff are the most productive members of your staff. I'm sure that's how you best perform. So training staff and business owners to work together effectively makes good old-fashioned common sense.

Employee loyalty is declining yet businesses are still dependent and requiring top performance. The cost of employee turnover is 1.5 to 3 times the employee’s remuneration. Additionally, unseen costs like decreased production from departing employees and the effects of discontinuity of customers can cause a decline in
business output.

The investment in staff training helps create effective staff members while they’re working in your business. Statistics show that loyalty from staff is not forever, but surely investing in staff working efficiently and effectively for five years is better than an ineffective worker being employed 20 years. The cost of training being too expensive versus no training, is an outdated idea in this modern fast paced business world of today.