The Value of Training

It's been a little under three weeks since my previous post here.  Two of those weeks were taken up by a class where I made an acoustic guitar.  That was a blast.  70+ hours per week of very hard work and learning but I ended up with a very nice guitar and far more knowledge and confidence than I was going to gain by myself in the next several years. This experience reminded me of the value of training.

When money gets tight training budgets are often the first thing to get cut.  It's easy to get into the mindset that training is a frivolous luxury but particularly in the technology sector it's also likely a very bad and wrong assessment. 

I've boot strapped myself numerous times on new technologies.  I've always learned enough to get the job done acceptably.  When I compare those experiences to the ones where I had an opportunity to attend some sort of training beforehand the difference is substantial.  Rather than spending a lot of my time learning the basics of the technology as I went along I was able to complete whatever project I was working much more quickly and deliver a better final product as well. 

Good quality training is a great bootstrap.  At the very least, it will save you time and money. In business taking longer to complete a task or project can have an opportunity cost so it’s reasonable to state that it might even make you money.

All of this ignores the fact that employees often view training as a desirable perk.  Taking that perk away is going to hurt morale and might encourage your most valuable people to look elsewhere.  I’ve seen this happen before.

Productive employees are a key asset to any company.  Timely and regular training helps employees maintain their edge. It’s easy to miss the signs that quality is dropping off in this area initially. This may be why companies cut here first. It's a fools savings in my opinion.