Articles

Everyone who's spoken to a hiring manager has heard the complaint that good people are just too hard to find. The secret is that the reason for this isn't that there aren't any good people. There are plenty of highly skilled and qualified employees in the workforce. They just don't go on the market - they're just too darned happy where they are. A big part of the reason for this is that they didn't necessarily start out as highly skilled and qualified, but were brought to that level through competent business and management coaching.

Many CEO's have a Harvard MBA, but below the CEO level a large percentage of management started out at the bottom working their way up. There is no real truth to the idea that one begins at the bottom and stays there for their career. It is widely recognized that competent training management, often referred to as "on the job training," is one of the primary ways companies increase the value of their in-house talent. This is because that value does not leave the company.

When employees see that a company invests in them, through conferences, seminars, and other forms of training management, they see that they are working for a company that cares about them. This is one of the main reasons that they don't go on the market, looking for another company that probably won't treat them as well.

The other dirty secret is that training management leaves a company whose employees don't know exactly what they're worth. Unlike the Harvard MBA, they don't have a piece of paper that suddenly makes them much more expensive to hire. At the same time, they are often just as motivated, or more so, after taking on the job training (while being paid!) than someone slugging through academia. This is one many reasons companies are eager for training management.

While change management is important in keeping a company current, training management is at least equally important. If the market never moved, it would be unnecessary. But even the strongest brands and the soundest companies can decay if they refuse to keep up with the world around them. Continuous management is required to keep ad campaigns convincing and workers in tune with the company goals. For these reasons, constant training is required.

Although a piece of paper from Harvard never changes, continuous changes are a fact of life for corporations across the world. With the right training and change management, companies can keep on top, turning weak employees into strong ones, and allowing someone with out-dated qualifications into fresh and exciting new areas. And that's something even Harvard is struggling with now.