Those companies that no longer invest adequate time and money in management training in these times of austerity are almost certainly starting to lose ground and business. The Managing Director of a specialist contracting company related how his views had changed on management training costs after a recent review meeting with one of his most important clients, a major retail group.
The review meeting assessed the work his company had completed over the last year, in particular relating to quality and on-time delivery. The project managers and team leaders who work for his company are extremely visible as they fulfil work schedules at the retail outlets in high streets and retail parks around the country. This client observed that these key people fall short as managers in significant areas. They noted that meetings management skills were lacking, and that people-management skills were often weak so that performance management, punctuality and behavioural issues of team members were left unaddressed, impacting on quality and completion deadlines. The review scraped by; but with future repeat business at risk should improvements in management capability not materialise.
So investment in management training is now underway for this group. A budget of just 1% of the annual employment cost of team leaders and managers on their leadership and management development training will make the difference. Properly planned and implemented management training supported by internal coaching and action learning sets will give enough learning and development to enable those job holders to stand out in front of their client for their competence not their inadequacies. Holding back on management training costs may help the P&L look good this year, but when future sales deteriorate, and profits suffer it will be easier to blame the economy than to recognise that the lack of investment in management training was the root cause.
Read more about management training programmes.
By Mike Cooney | Righttrack’s Commercial and Financial Director