At the end of the day skills pay bills.
At the age of 17, Julius Yego broke the national junior record in javelin. Little was known of him considering Kenya is not big in field events as it is a giant in track events. Had we had our priorities right as a country his career would have taken off then considering the long way he had come to break the national junior record in his running shoes; but he still got no coach or place to train! Fast forward to 2009, Yego became a cyber café frequent watching his icons and trying to replicate their techniques in his trainings- speed, power and flexibility. Due to his persistence, Julius Yego beat all the odds against him to become the Kenya’s javelin sensation bagging a gold medal at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015, the first ever major field event gold medal. A perfect example of an individual who recognized how important training was and had to make the use of what he had.
It’s undebatable that employee training comes at cost, the biggest resources used being time and money. Not training your employees on the hand comes at cost too, a cost that may weigh in on their productivity. This implies that for an employer to get the best out of his employees, he has constantly to provide opportunities for growth and development through training and development which happen to be a major underlying factor in employee motivation and retention.
New hires normally seem to be the only ones who need training which is not the case. With factors such as technology in play, current employees too require to learn new skills to be more efficient. Training can be conducted in two different ways, namely:-
On the job training- Employees are trained in actual work scenario, it is a simple and a cost effective method of training. Examples of such training methods include coaching, role-shadowing, job rotation e.t.c.
Off the job training- In this scenario employees training is carried out away from the actual workplace. For example, workshops and seminars. Such methods are only cost effective if a large number of employees is involved and for a short period of time.
The following are reasons as to why employee training and development is important:-
• Better working environment; Accidents or errors on the job are less likely to occur when employees are well trained and have sufficient knowledge. Emergency preparedness and fire prevention, workplace safety are examples of training programmes.
• Succession; Employee training creates a talent pool within the organization which enables smooth transition when new positions require to be filled.
• Increased productivity; Training increases productivity by reducing time and production costs by working on both quality and quantity aspects.
Training and development is successive and kicks-off immediately one joins an organization, but as it progresses it all depends on the training need of an individual. Employees appreciate employers who are devoted to the development of their knowledge and skills; the better they get give them new challenges. At the end of the day skills pay bills.
