A
report by NIACE highlights how “whilst organisations recognise the importance
for recovery of maintaining a strategic focus and developing work in key areas
such as skills activism, for many their time and resources have been diverted
into implementing emergency measures to tackle business contraction,
redundancies and unemployment. In
addition, the recession has challenged fundamental economic assumptions on
which pre-recessionary learning and skills policy was based, and new agendas
set out for recovery have yet to gain consensus. Under these circumstances, it is vital that
organisations have the space to consider and debate the emerging economic
picture - nationally, regionally and locally – and to explore the implications
of this for longer term, strategic planning,” (p.5).
The
NIACE research found that “many employers have responded to the more difficult
business climate by reducing their investment in staff training and development,”
(p.6). What’s striking about this finding is that its history repeating itself,
where in the aftermath of previous recessions the consensus was that the last
budget that should be cut in a recession is for training and development.
What’s
also interesting is that back in 2009 organisations from the TUC to the
Institute of Directors and the CBI espoused the common message that investment
in skills development is essential to equip individuals, businesses and the
nation to confront successfully the challenges that the recession presents
(TUC, 2009b; IoD, 2009; CBI, 2009).
‘Smart’
organisations understand how important the development of their ‘human’ talent
is for real sustainable growth and the ability to develop a genuine ‘competitive
advantage’. They do this by ensuring their organisations continue to have that
special, hard-to duplicate know-how – which along with a culture that encourages
debate and innovation – creates a cohesive team, across the whole organisation
that effortlessly sets the standards for other organisations to follow.
Quite
a few leaders seem to forget in a recession, and unfortunately beyond, that
their organisation is made up of a ‘lot of players’ that are part of one big ‘team’
and its success is determined firstly by how well they all work together
towards a common goal; and secondly by ensuring that they are continually learning
and developing their skills and knowledge.
It
may be true that the strategic leadership team sets organisational visions and strategy;
but the leadership must never forget that it is the employees at the ‘coal face’
who are often the first to identify actual or potential problems, and if the
culture is right and they have the right skills and knowledge they can be the
first to offer short and/or long-term solutions.
One
mistake managers make, and not just in a recession, is the automatic assumption
that ‘staff development’ costs money with little return – but firstly there are
enough professional training and development organisations that offer ‘tailored’
solutions with practical learning outcomes, which often ensures an excellent
return on investment; but, secondly, organisations can and should always consider
‘internal skills transfer’. This transfer of skills means, for example, that the
financial team should be able to ‘teach’ financial skills to other functional
areas; the corporate strategists should be able to transfer key skills in
strategic implementation; the human resource specialists should be able to
transfer key behavioural skills on an individual and team basis, as required;
and those at the ‘coal face’ should be giving ‘constant’ feedback on ‘customer’
perceptions and attitudes in the current climate and hence key customer
relationship management skills; etc.
Successful
organisations will have loads of talent in their structures, at various levels,
and you should use every opportunity, especially in times of hardship, to share
and transfer those skills to others in the organisation.
So
claiming you can’t afford to develop your management and staff is not correct – you can always
encourage and ensure organisational development – and it doesn’t have to cost
much at all. What you do need are forward thinking leaders who know the
critical importance of talent management and development, beyond the nice to
have rhetoric. Leaders who will always ensure that they have an organisational
culture that inspires people to want to learn; question and share their
knowledge to the benefit of the organisation; its innovative approach to
problem solving and a genuine positive focus on sustainable growth.
This
isn’t a ‘big’ corporate philosophy and can (and should) be employed by any
sized organisation that wants to optimise its future. You need a culture that
encourages individual and team development on a continuous basis – where this
development is practically focused on innovative business; competitive
advantage and future growth.
References:
Learning
in the Recession: implications of the recession for adult learning and skills
in the English regions. Report by the National Institute of Adult Continuing
Education. December 2009.