According to Gizelle McIntyre, director of the Institute for People Development, skills development still does not have the focus, clarity and drive necessary to make a real difference. "A clear comparison can be drawn when considering the implementation of a new IT system. Should a new system be required, an IT specialist is brought in without question to ensure that the implementation is successful; professional assistance is sought. Why then do companies expect return on investment (ROI) when they do not utilise skills development expertise and learning and development (L&D) specialists to handle their skills development strategies and systems?"
In the realm of education, training and development (ETD), there are two vital elements to training: firstly, the training of the trainers or facilitators and, secondly, the utilisation of ETD within an organisation as a whole by ETD or L&D practitioners, who are much more than trainers only.
"The current constraint preventing organisations from professionalising their trainers is that there aren't enough L&D professionals employed at a strategic level. This results in clerks being left to make what should be strategic training and development decisions - skills development is a specialised field that requires a specialist to develop a strategic plan," believes McIntyre.
It would be foolish to believe that even when spending large budgets on purchasing skills, further training will not be required. "Any new employee, regardless of their hierarchical level, will need some training - from something as simple as learning to understand the culture of the organisation to something as complicated as a technical skill specifically required due to the intellectual property of the organisation," says McIntyre. "There is a big difference between having knowledge of something and actually understanding and applying the knowledge in practice."
When considering training options, many corporations will evaluate whether measurable ROI will emanate from skills development - no company wants to spend money for nothing. "Training, if done through the correct channels and targeted at actual skills gaps, will always result in ROI. Unfortunately, most organisations look only to the rands and cents evaluation of ROI, but this isn't the only measurement tool," she continues.
There is, of course, the obvious ROI in monetary terms; a salesperson is sent on sales training and increases sales - easy to measure, money in the bank. But what about the manager with poor people skills that is costing his corporation R50,000 a year in recruitment fees due to high staff turnover?
Being trained in softer skills and enabled to deal effectively with people means that the manager will no longer cost the company money - corporations must learn to view ROI from both sides - money making and cost saving. "Personally, my measure of ROI is if I send a staff member for training and three months down the line, even when no one is micro-managing him, he still does the job right."
