Four Reasons Why Organizations Should Invest In Employee Development

Market pressure and a desire to succeed means that it is only logical that organizations and managers do what they can to deliver results and outperform the competition. So, for some, taking employees away from their workstations for training and development purpose is often perceived as counter-productive.

During my 26 years’ professional experience in corporate life, and 10 years as a transformation coach, I have worked with thousands of successful entrepreneurs, managers, leaders and organizations to help them adopt a positive culture when it comes to employee development.

Throughout this time, I have learned hugely through observing, assessing and interacting with workers at every level and, in this article, I would like to share the four reasons why employee development and training is vitally important to organizational success:

1. The organization will be a talent magnet, attracting the best talent in the market, while, at the same time, retaining the best employees. Replacing a member of staff can, depending on the role, cost the company anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000.

2. Employee development creates a talent pool containing the future leaders of the organization. Adopting a ‘promote-from-within’ culture offers the following advantages:

•  Boost employee morale and motivation
• Improve staff retention – ‘60% of employees choose to stay with an employer that invests in their professional development‘ – CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)
• Avoid burnout and an negative attitude in the workplace.

3. Employee engagement and productivity increases.

4. Generate a positive return on investment – ‘Untrained employees take up to six times longer to perform the same task as trained employees’ – Hewlett Packard

Also – ‘Organizations that invest in staff development outperform the market by 45%’ – ASTD (Association for Talent Development)

Organizations need to see the development of employees as an investment rather than an expense. While some companies might be wary of spending too much on training, in case the employee leaves soon after, the development and training of employees is a huge benefit to companies in the long term. So, perhaps it should be a case of can you afford not to develop your employees.




About the Author: 

Samir Bata

Samir Bata's expertise in Management and Leadership has been built in 26 years in key positions in sales, marketing, general operations management, and business development. In addition to his management and leadership expertise, Samir is also a Senior Associate at MCE. 

#MCE55 Event 19-20 April 2016: Accelerated solutions for building organizational relevance and connectivity in a disruptive world.

Read here more why you should come to this event.

Leadership in an Age of Convergence

Jens Maier is Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, Fellow at London Business School (Centre for Management Development) and the Founder of CE Convergence Engineers.

He is the author of “The ambidextrous Organization-exploring the new while exploiting the now”; Palgrave Macmillan; 2015 and will be presenting a keynote session at #MCE55 Event in April (19-20 April 2016). 

Convergence between markets and technologies happens around us. The perfect Storm of ubiquitous Technologies (smartphones, cloud computing, big data, social media and the internet of everything), often characterized as „digitization” is by itself challenging enough. When coupled with a megatrend such as aging population, the implications are felt across most industries.

MCE: You’ve introduced "the ambidextrous leader” as a viable concept and a “must- have” for today’s successful corporation. But doesn’t the evidence indicate that a lot of senior managers can’t use even one hand effectively to steer the corporate boat?

Jens Maier (JM): Sure, there are always exceptions: that individual leaders fail at running the existing business smoothly. However, years of benchmarking, continuous improvement, black belts etc. have helped to raise the professionalism in most industries. Therefore, I have observed that senior managers have become quite proficient at using the hand of “exploiting” the current business.

Now, the perfect storm of technologies such as smartphones, cloud computing, big data, social media and the internet of everything has a huge impact on the future of most existing industries.

This current phenomenon, often summarized as digitalization, creates new competitors in the existing business and is simultaneously offering opportunities for new businesses. Therefore, organizations are challenged to develop the capability of exploration. It is no longer just about playing existing game better, shaping game is now required. In shaping game organizations are fighting for relevance in the next phase of their industry. Witness Nokia and Blackberry fresh in our minds as examples for organizations struggling to move beyond efficiency to stay relevant.

Relevance therefore is the result for an organization’s capability to reconcile exploitation (efficiency in the existing busing business) and successful exploration of new opportunities beyond today’s core business. Organizations have to develop the organizational “bandwidth” to reconcile exploitation and exploration.

MCE: What’s your recipe for getting respect as a leader? What would you mandate/demand that CEOs-in waiting MUST experience, learn, adopt or get enthused about on their way to the top.

JM: Respect is earned and due when a leader can demonstrate both authenticity and adaptability. In the book I use the analogy of the T-model. We find that initially first time team or project leaders tend to repeat the leadership behaviour that brought them success in the previous assignment. If the “hammer” was successful, in the next, larger assignment a bigger “hammer” is being used. This brings leaders success in their functional area of expertise or to stay with the analogy, as long as the challenge presents itself in the shape of a nail... However, we have learned about the high levels of de-railment that take place at the transition from the vertical line of the T-model to the horizontal line, the transition from functional specialist to general manager.

At the level of general management, the CEO role is just the broadest version of general management, a leader has to demonstrate additional competencies such as “influencing”.

This means that the leader has to develop the necessary “bandwidth” of behaviors over and beyond the preference for the “hammer”.

Now, in the current age of “digitization” the need for developing bandwidth in leadership behavior has been added one important new dimension, the requirement to be able to do both “exploitation” and “exploration”.

In their role as leader, individuals are required to prepare their organizations for the future, in short to innovate. Now, as leaders progress in their careers they usually assemble a good track record around exploitation, the continuous improvement of processes and products. However, in the age of digitization, exploration as a key competence has to be acquired. Again the new dimension for increasing personal bandwidth is the competency to do both exploitation and exploration.

MCE: We keep hearing about phrases like soft skills and mindfulness, but it’s a tough, real-world out there. Doesn’t the ambidextrous leader need an iron fist in a velvet glove to gain respect? So how do you reconcile these opposites to be the real leader so many of us want to follow?

JM: This is where the idea of individual bandwidth comes in: There are times when a leader has to apply the iron-fist, or the hammer. This may be necessary to apply exploitation. However, during our times of digitization, when it is important to explore new approaches, the competence to develop a vision, a point of view is also critical. This exploration competence includes winning the hearts and minds of followers, includes influencing inside and outside the organization. This could be described as the velvet glove. This means that leaders have to develop their individual bandwidth to be adaptable to both exploitation and exploration requirements and to stay authentic.

MCE: If you could sum up your book’s message in one phrase that any would-be leaders should keep in mind everyday to repeat as a mantra as they start their day’s work, what would it be?

JM: Ambidexterity is about personal and organizational bandwidth – what do I do today to improve both my personal and our organizational bandwidth.

#MCE55 Event 19-20 April 2016: Accelerated solutions for building organizational relevance and connectivity in a disruptive world.

Read here more why you should come to this event.

"Women constitute half of the talent of the planet."

A series of interviews with experienced players and experts in human resources and organizational development. Here we ask the questions to Elisabeth Kelan, Professor of Leadership at Cranfield School of Management, and a world renowned expert on gender diversity and women in the workplace. She has just published a new study “Opening the Black Box” (*), that  examines the struggle women have to get into top jobs. 

MCE : 50% of the world’s working population are female. Are we ever going to recognize that fact and realize that we are talking about half the talent of the planet?

Elisabeth Kelan  (EK) : It is surprising that is has taken organizations so long to realise that women constitute half of the talent. Many organisations not only realise that they overlooked half of the talent but also that the talent they have been grooming as future leaders is changing dramatically. With the demographic and generational changes the 'Organization Man' who prioritises work over life is no longer a model that organizations can rely on when it comes to talent. This provides a strong impetus for change. 

MCE : Your new study is titled,“ Opening the Black Box”. (*)– We have to ask the question: “is it really worth the effort; isn’t there a better, more useful, contribution that talented females can make to organizations, without hankering after being the CEO” ?

EK : The study looks at how journeys to the boardroom differ for women and men. The research was conducted by Scarlett Brown, a PhD candidate at King's College London, who is funded by the ESRC and by Sapphire Partners an executive search firm specialising in diverse talent. There is currently a lot of focus on achieving at least 25 percent women in FTSE100 board rooms following the Davies review. The Cranfield Female FTSE report shows that we are on track to hit the 25 percent target. The effect on candidates is that it raised the ambition of many women and they now aim for a board seat. While women aim for a board seat, men are more likely to aim for the chair of the board. There is still a difference in ambition and it is important that women not only get a board seat but also take leadership roles on the board. We also found that women received a lot of advice on their way to the boardroom whereas men benefitted from sponsorship - they had power brokers who put them forward for roles. Women and men network in the same ways but get different things from their network. This shows that a lot of work needs to be done to achieve gender balance on boards and beyond.  

MCE :  Do you think, that women who choose a business career get a rough ride from the media and are all too easily stereotyped – any thoughts on how to avoid that?

EK : Women in the media in general get a rough ride. Women are more likely to appear as vox populi but much less likely to be featured as experts. The media thereby perpetuates gender stereotypes instead of providing an impetus for new societal possibilities. This of course affects women in business careers where the focus is often on their private life and their attire rather than their business contribution. Media organisations are waking up to this and some are changing the messages they put out. 

MCE : Do you have any female business women heroes – and why do you respect them ?

EK : We are really lucky today to have a good selection of senior women in business and beyond who are all very different. Just think of women leaders such as Angela Merkel, Ginni Rometty, Christine Lagarde, Hillary Clinton, Marissa Mayer to name but few. All of them have found ways to lead in their unique ways rather than complying with a template. I admire that.  We also should not forget that there are many men who practice leadership in such ways that allow gender equality to flourish. So rather than looking at women as leaders we also need to foster gender inclusive leadership practices in men as well as women. For instance I am currently engaged in a new research project that explores how middle managers practice inclusive leadership. 

(*) You can download the study at : http://www.openingtheblackbox.co.uk