The rapid pace of today’s business means that relevant skills are becoming outdated more quickly than ever before. This naturally creates challenges for companies that are trying to innovate and achieve growth.
In fact, a PwC report shows that 98 percent of South African CEOs are worried about the availability of key skills within their organizations. And this growing skills gap extends beyond highly sought-after tech skills.
While many companies will consider hiring new employees in order to address rising business pressures, sourcing the right candidates will only become more difficult as the skills gap increases.
It’s a major part of the reason why internal skills development should increasingly be a priority for forward-thinking business leaders.
Equipping the right people with the right skills can have a direct impact on a business’ bottom line.
Impacting the Bottom Line
A recent IBM study showed that among best-performing global companies, 84 percent of employees are receiving the training they need. On the other hand, in worst-performing companies, just 16 percent of staff members have access to the training they require.
It’s hardly surprising given the far-reaching benefits that a solid development plan can have. According to the same report, upskilling and development initiatives can help drive innovation and boost employee engagement. This is largely because effective programmes are proven to enhance problem-solving skills and can ultimately improve peoples’ ability to adapt to change.
Naturally, these programmes are also good for individual career development, which in turn has a positive impact on employee retention. In fact, 42 percent of new employees are more likely to remain with a company if they feel they have been equipped with the skills they need to perform.
Ensuring a Return on Investment
But, there’s no point in implementing a training programme if you can’t ensure it will provide this type of return on investment.
Many businesses implement programmes only to have them fail because of any number of different factors. Perhaps they didn’t choose the right course to meet their particular objectives or perhaps demanding work schedules are preventing staff members from giving their training courses the attention they need.
It means that before implementing a training and development plan, businesses should be asking a few important questions, starting with how relevant the particular course they have in mind is to the staff member’s role. In other words, will they be able to use those skills in their day-to-day role within the organization? And finally, will the training have any other benefits for the business?
Setting Measurable Goals
Once a business has established that the training programme it has in mind is the right programme, it should set measurable goals around what specifically it wants to achieve, both for the business and the individual employee.
By tracking progress against these objectives, companies can ensure that each employee continues to grow. While this might seem hugely time-intensive technology can help managers stay on top of their team members’ growth.
The SYSPRO Learning Channel (SLC) for example has full reporting capabilities, enabling companies to measure and monitor the educational progress of each SYSPRO user. It also provides managers with more valuable insight into how educational and organizational objectives are being met. This visibility can then lead to operational improvements and cost savings.
Essentially the platform is an Open Learning area that provides any SLC member with information and educational material. This includes access to educational content such as training guides, tutorials, and videos. Trainees can even create their own content playlists, download files, and follow the content that interests them.
SLC members have the opportunity to upskill themselves across a broad range of topics, from sales and project management to administration and finance.
Each programme provides a structured view of multiple e-learning courses. For example, the Inventory programme consists of courses covering inventory costing methods, setup options, stock code, and warehouse maintenance, inventory movements, the stock take system, inventory reports, and queries, as well as the goods in transit subsystem.
In this way, businesses can ensure their staff members are receiving really practical, comprehensive training, while at the same time, measuring success.
At the end of the day, training is a massive investment that can contribute significantly to business growth. But, businesses must ensure they know what they are trying to achieve through their training programme and that they are keeping track of progress.
