Fri, 2007-06-29 10:48
Staff Training and Organizational Development
Competent Staff
If your company wants to establish itself as a
cutting edge leader in the
products or services that you provide, your staff team will need to represent your
company with a competency and an efficiency that spells excellence and that is right
up there on the level that your
management team expects. In order to achieve
this, you have to
carefully select the people that work
in your company, train them to the highest level possible and empower them to
strive at a competitive level. You need
quick thinkers, that are committed, enthusiastic and that have initiative. Motivated
staff is one of the most universally challenging
Human Resource issues.
Job Interview Limitations
Although the employment
interview process is supposed to filter out deadbeats
and leave you with the best person for the job, things do not always work out that
way. Very often, an individual interviews extremely well but for all intents and
purposes proves to be quite unprepared when it comes time to actually doing the
job. This is why it is extremely important that your have an
internal training program
and that each and every one of your
staff members be trained to do the job
that you have hired them to do.
Establishing Corporate Culture
When it comes to
corporate culture, the more driven and ambitious your company
is, the more likely that management will strive to establish an attitude amongst
staff that strongly lines up with their vision. When it comes down to it,
internal
training sessions are the company's opportunity to impart established corporate
values into those that work for and will represent the company.
You yourself may feel inadequate or not fully equipped to spearhead such a program in your organization. All is not lost. You can
contact one of the
many organizational development networks that are designed to train and equip managers to fulfil this role in their
respective organizations and companies.
Regular Training Seminars
Staff training should take place on a regular basis. If you are consistent
with providing
continual training, your employees will very soon grow to
expect it and they will develop the value of wanting to reach for higher goals and
to strive beyond their current position. By providing regular training opportunities
you will offer your staff chances for growth and opportunities to move forward in
their careers. Employees that feel empowered to grow in their careers and that are
encouraged to look forward to promotion tend to be much more motivated. In contrast
to those that feel that they are stuck in dead-end positions. If you are hoping
for excellence among your staff, do not allow them to grow stagnant. You will very
quickly find that through providing training and
growth opportunities
your most driven members of staff will naturally rise to the forefront.
Who to Train
Some of the
training courses in your organization should be compulsory. Others
should be optional and only for those that are motivated. When it comes to
training
on corporate culture, accepted standards and company values, all staff should
be required to attend. Training sessions that involve training on corporate culture
and corporate values will obviously be in-house affairs. However more
specialized,
skills training will often need to be done by another organization.
It is important that management keep their eye open for training opportunities,
conferences and workshops for staff to attend outside of the company as well as
internally. This will keep your company competitive. It will also help you know
your competition, as they too will be participating in workshops and conferences.
Organizational Development
When it comes to
organizational development, your company will ideally be
in a state of constant growth. Not necessarily growth, as in the number of people
that work for you, but in maturing as an organization and becoming more and more
established. It is usually the COO or the
operations department that determines
where the company is headed in terms of organizational development. The operations
department needs to be up-to-date on what is happening in your particular industry
and needs to ensure that the company as a whole is on track to being competitive
in all arenas affecting the success of the company.
Hiring from Within the Organization
When
strategizing the growth of your company and tweaking the organization
of the company, it is important to
hire and to promote from within your organization
whenever possible. Staff in entry level positions should be able to see others in
the company moving through the ranks. They must be able to believe that they too
can achieve in the same way as they are seeing others achieve. This is another reason
why internal training is so important. From a management perspective, promoting
from within is the most economic way for your organization to
hire people.
Not only will you get a return on all that you have invested in that employee up
to that point, but their transition into their new position will be much smoother
than introducing an outsider. This is simply because an existing employee will already
know the organization, be familiar with standards and procedures and will have a
better understanding of how their new job fits into the larger picture of the company.
Increasing Staff Morale
Promoting from within not only improves the morale of the person promoted
but it also
increases the morale of all staff that witness the
promotion
as well.
Increased staff morale may not be considered a tangible by
management but without a doubt it is of extremely high importance. It affects everything
when it comes to the way in which your staff team performs for the company.
