Makes no cents

Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership has a good piece up on a problem that faces many front line managers and supervisors: lack of skill development. As he mentions, a Gallup study showed that people leave managers, not companies and work production and job satisfaction are linked to the skill of a manager to find a role that fits an employees talent. These can be taught, should be taught, and are not being taught.

I think it may be a problem because training is often seen as a benefit for working at a company. Training and development are not really benefits. Vacation, insurance coverage for an employees family, and season tickets to the Spurs are benefits. Training is really for the success of the company. Maybe this is why many trainers and OD practioners have a problem with ROI. It is seen as a benefit, an add on, extra. If seen as a way to enhance the skills of a manager, supervisor, or lead then the ROI would be much more evident. People transferring from front line into manager roles probably do not have the training to lead and read people.

ROI for training: More spending for training = Huge profits. This is assuming that the training team is good.

Example: Rackspace does a good job training. Mr. Henry Sauer, dean of Rackspace University, has written a good article on setting up a training department. One of his points is very good, "Professional development training encompasses courses that improve employees' ability to perform their jobs including managerial training, teamwork training, business presentation skills, etc." Rackspace was a small managed hosting company only five years ago and has increased in size to 1400 Rackers, offices internationally, and still holds the company culture it is branded by: fanatical customer support, results first, embracing change, passion for work, promise keeping, treating others as friends and family. These are not easy to train, but Rackspace has been successful in the past. Hats off to Mr. Sauer, Ms. Staci Marshall, and the Rack U team!