Apparently, a little thing like surviving an economic collapse, streamlining a workforce down to the bitter minimum and fighting for one’s own now-much-harder-job meant training and development went to the bottom of the typical manager’s to-do list. Whoops!

Now that things are starting to pick up in the labor market it is time to put training and development back on the top of this list. Think about training as being divided into two categories: 1) what we can teach them to make them more efficient at their jobs now, and 2) what we can teach them that will help our company grow in the very near future.

Here’s why training needs to top your list:

1. Employees are no longer afraid to leave. Training is an investment in them and in their future, and they know it. So when you invest in them and make them better at their jobs you get double duty for your investment. Training aids retention while teaching.
2. Standards are high and prices are down. The economic trouble has raised the bar for service in all markets. People are buying, but they expect the world from their providers. Meanwhile, prices are competitive, which makes selling something even harder. Better to get that team trained to embrace the new reality and add even more value to the customer-and fast.

Try not to waste time feeling bad or worrying about how you can find the time for it. There are resources everywhere which can make training easy and affordable. You can do it yourself, farm it out or do combinations of both-but definitely do it. You will feel better about the future and about your team.

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” ~Chinese Proverb