One of my favourite expressions that I turn to regularly is “grow the person to grow the business”. For me, you have to persuade people: if you’re not upskilling your team and business is suffering then something needs to be done.
It’s not rocket science. Put simply, if you put knowledge in you get skills out. And if you exploit these skills, you gain greater efficiency, which drives profits, which gives you more scope to grow your training budget… and the circle is complete.
The automation industry is a great example where training is essential. As technology advances, products become more sophisticated and greater capabilities are introduced, so we provide a comprehensive training regime designed to help our customers keep pace with these new developments.
Our Rockwell Automation TechEd event is one example. We offer a wide range of presentations and labs that are designed to both educate and inspire.
TechEd is an accelerator, and the real knowledge comes from the attendees going back to their companies and applying what they have learnt. After you help people over the first bump, they have much more confidence to help themselves because they now know what to look for and how to take those first steps. We like to think that we provide the catalyst, and the attendees can do so much more. And if they hit another bump in the road, we can help there, too.
I will close with another argument that I often use about training: can you afford not to?
I’m not trying to justify the cost of the training with this question. What I am trying to illustrate is the positive impact training can have on the bottom line.
Wouldn't you rather make sure your employees realize their potential so they make your team or organization stronger? And wouldn't you rather make sure you can keep them so you don't spend resources recruiting and onboarding only to have to do it again when they leave?
