Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR February 9, 2015 10 FeAtures Popular New Learning Format For Busy Leaders: Featuring a blend of 3 classroom sessions plus self-paced learning When Does it Start? Starts April 2015 Full Completion by June 2015. Seating is Limited to 30 - Register Early Next Steps to Find Out More: 1. Request a brochure today for yourself, or for your key leaders. Call 416.736.5079 or 1.800.667.9380 2. Email your request to Jim Polley, Associate Director, at jpolley@schulich.yorku.ca 3. Preview and register online at seec.schulich.yorku.ca What Past Participants Say: "After 14 previous courses with SEEC, the 15th was by far the best yet. Thank you for opening up the 'Mini-MBA'. " A. Jess, Director of Technical Services and Logistics, Conmed Linuatec Canada "The pace of the course is perfect and packed with the high level information you need to know!" A. Ferraro, Corporate Business Development, Reid's Heritage Homes Featuring The Highest Demand MBA Subjects, Taught by MBA Faculty � Critical Thinking Skills � Economic Environment of Business � Strategic Management � Managerial Finance � Supply Chain Management � Marketing Strategy � Brand Management � Managing New Technologies � Business Negotiating Skills � Business Ethics & Social Responsibility � Human Resource & Career Branding � Managing Change A world-class executive education option for managers and executives to receive business competencies taught in the MBA program, in a fraction of the time & cost! Complete your program in under three months, and fast-track your career. The Schulich Mini-MBA: Essentials of Management REGISTER FOR APRIL 2015 Training and developmenT Tight budget? Please don't chop T&D By making learning and development a strategic priority, employers can benefit from measurable return on investment By Karmen Blackwood t raining and development dollars are often the first to disappear when orga- nizations tighten belts, which is unfortunate — developing staff is essential to the success of any organization. While many managers pay lip service to the importance of cre- ating an organizational learning culture, in a faced-paced world where people are being pulled in 100 different directions, and dealing with sometimes severe resource constraints, other priori- ties often take precedence. However, it is very important to make learning and development a priority and ensure employees' skills, abilities and knowledge lev- els are being regularly updated. There are many reasons for investing in employee training and development plans. Examples include: •onboarding new hires •individual employee develop- ment plans, where you are train- ing to fill a skill or knowledge gap, address a performance issue or prepare an employee to take on greater managerial or leadership responsibilities •succession planning, where HR has identified high-potentials and is grooming the next genera- tion of leaders •addressing technology changes and providing the skills and knowledge needed to leverage new and emerging technologies •addressing legal or regulatory is- sues and changes •helping a team address a range of issues and opportunities around growth and change, including helping the team and organiza- tion respond and adapt to struc- tural change in the economy. In creating an organizational learning culture, there are solid best practices but there is no one size fits all. Organizations need to examine their own context, cul- ture and strategic goals and devel- op an appropriate organizational training and development plan for all levels of the organization that includes a selection of pub- lic, open-enrolment programs of choice for employees' individual learning needs and custom in- house training for team training and development needs. In addition to this, there should be systematized coaching and mentoring and on-the-job train- ing plans in place and available for all employees. It is important to cascade the learning throughout the organization, and it is always imperative to ensure consistency in the training and development approach across the organization. Some of the key benefits to or- ganizations that make employee training and development a pri- ority include: increased productivity: Time- ly and relevant training helps boost productivity. By closing skills, knowledge and perfor- mance gaps, and arming employ- ees with new ideas, best practices and skills they can put into prac- tice in their jobs right away, their competence, ability and confi- dence levels increase. As a result, these employees are able to make better decisions and do their jobs smarter and more efficiently. return on investment: By making training and development a strategic priority, and imple- menting it in a thoughtful and de- liberate manner, an organization can benefit from measurable ROI. HR can measure for impact, for qualitative and quantitative ROI, and there are various ways to do so. For example, you can do pre- and post-training assessments and measure the improvement; this can then be translated into fi- nancial return when you calculate the value of saved time, increased productivity, increased sales, for example. It is important for or- ganizations to view training and development as an investment, not an expense, and to leverage training and development for the achievement of business and organizational goals. Investment in employee training and devel- opment should be regarded as a capital investment where you will look for ROI. increased employee satisfac- tion and retention: e costs of employee turnover can be high, and not only in pure financial terms. There are many hidden costs executives find hard to cal- culate, and some estimates place the costs of employee turnover at anywhere from 150 to 250 per cent of an employee's annual compen- sation, depending on how senior or specialized the position is. By Foster > pg. 13 Timely, relevant training helps boost productivity by closing skills, knowledge and performance gaps and providing best practices.

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