Training = overhead
BY TONY PALLADINO
In today’s competitive environment, organizations are now, more than ever, becoming vigilant regarding expenditures, especially in regard to typical “overhead” items.
In the past, it was common practice to have training and development programs be one of the first to fall under the budget ax, with the understanding that such initiatives could easily be integrated back into active status at a later date.
Because of these belt-tightening practices, in-house trainer positions were considered a high-risk profession, operating in a feast or famine environment with a job security rating just below that of the company CEO!
Complicating this practice was a lack of comprehension of the strategic side of training and development and its impact on the workforce, the organization and its competitive advantage. Since training and development is aligned with
Human Resource Development activities, HR has been tasked with proving their relevance as a department, and re-defining themselves as a
critical strategic partner to both the core functional roles of the business, as well as to the overall organizational success.
The evolving roles of HR from domestic and tactical to global and strategic has been instrumental in elevating the respectability of the department and the profession, and has provided a critical strategic lens when viewing training and development as a key contribution to employee attraction, job satisfaction, employee engagement, and retention.
The organizational value generated by these key HR activities are becoming more easily recognizable and defensible when applying a variety of metrics across Human Resource Development activities that show a positive return on investment.
Workforce Development
14 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST JAN 2015
or investment?
BY ALLAN GARDNER