Maintaining staff expertise in a low growth economy

Oct. 11, 2012 - PRLog -- In the current economic climate, businesses are working hard to stay at the forefront of their sector, overcoming skills gaps so they can remain self-reliant and ahead of their competition.

Maintaining staff expertise is a great concern for HR departments – a low growth economy unfortunately equates to a lack of talent available. It also means that many businesses are at their lowest in staff headcount, so individuals are under pressure to perform well beyond their immediate job role, needing an understanding of wider business issues.

The pressure on HR departments to overcome this can be quite intense and the focus can often lie on dealing with short-term issues to make short-term gains, making it difficult to pay attention to career development within the business and keep a track of training initiatives and programmes that may span a longer timeframe.

Continued Professional Development (CPD) is one of the best ways to ensure businesses are not subject to vulnerability caused by a lack of expertise or noticeable skills gaps. A proactive approach from HR to drive employee training can have numerous business benefits; not least the advantage of reducing recruitment needs as the business becomes more flexible.

CPD can also be an incentive for staff. Increasingly, employees are looking for remuneration packages that offer multiple benefits – a training programme can encourage staff retention within a business as it creates opportunities for progression and career development from the outset. It has also become more attractive to future employers, by showing that learning agility is a core competency.

Establishing an efficient workforce is crucial to ensure businesses stay up-to-date, especially in a constantly evolving marketplace when keeping abreast of the latest developments is more important than ever. But how do you keep staff training on the agenda without compromising time dedicated in the ‘office’, focused on the daily tasks?

Training ‘on-the-job’ is perceived as one of the most effective ways of delivering training to see a return on investment. Using tools that can aid learning on a day-to-day basis whilst in the working environment can be incredibly effective. Printed books are one such mechanism and are an invaluable resource to a whole business, cost-effectively.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that print-based learning has the most positive effects on information retention, which, when considering the fast-paced nature of business, can be incredibly important.

For HR departments, when CPD may be at the forefront of business objectives but not an immediate financial priority, sourcing books to aid learning is a cost-effective outcome that meets both objectives. Whilst it might be a ‘tick in the box’ for some, the long-term benefits of ensuring that training materials are always present, will no doubt have a positive effect on the growth and profitability of a business, as well as its reputation for being at the forefront of its sector.

Paul Savill, Director of Marketing at Bookaxis