If hiring the right person is important, retaining them might be even more crucial to your company’s success. After all, you invest significant amounts of time and money in order to train staff on your software and make them aware of company policies, customer relationships and, if possible, what you’re thinking before you even think it.
And while money certainly matters, education and training is another form of compensation that can keep employees loyal. “There are other ways, by offering experiences or other perks, that seem to have a higher impact on people than just a straight cash reward compensation,” says Rick Harcourt of Harcourt Recruiting Specialists.
Unfortunately, many small businesses aren’t getting this message. Clayton Davis, NAIT’s manager of human resources, continually hears employers telling him that if they send their staff for training they’ll just end up leaving. That’s the wrong way to approach the situation, he says. “If you don’t train your staff, then they’re going to leave you.”
Davis recently taught a continuing education course that included a secretive student from Calgary. The student claimed that he needed the training enough to drive up to Edmonton for each class, but believed that he’d be fired for doing so if his employer found out. As a result, he planned to get the course certificate and then move on to another employer that was more willing to support his desire for professional development.
Davis says companies can ease their way into the world of supplementary education through a variety of professional development courses. “It’s not necessarily training [staff] for a new career,” he says. “It’s making them better at the career they’ve chosen.”