Train your employees or recruit new ones?

A recent workplace trend report from Workday Designers (2021) revealed that many HR professionals are struggling to find talent. Consequently, the focus is shifting towards developing existing talents, knowledge, and skills (refer to my article titled “War for Talent”).

Learning has become an increasingly important part of work, as developing human capital is essential for gaining a competitive advantage. This places a greater emphasis on Human Resource Development (HRD) and its functions.

Despite the numerous definitions of HRD, scholar researchers agree on the following four core purposes of HRD:

1. Improving individual or group effectiveness and performance
2. Improving organisational effectiveness and performance
3. Developing knowledge, skills, and competencies
4. Enhancing human potential and personal growth

Training is an integral part of the Human Resources Development Process; however, training programs must be designed to align with the strategic goals of the organisation. This includes the following:

1. Identifying the specific knowledge and skills needed for the organisation. For example, a company should teach site foremen and workers to understand site plans rather than building them. On the other hand, why would a company teach data analysis to machine operators? I have seen companies adopt a “select all” strategy when it comes to training courses, resulting in non-homogeneous classes that significantly reduce the benefits of the training.
2. If your aim is to outperform your competitors, always keep an eye on their employees’ skills and plan to teach your employees higher-level or additional skills. For example, if your competitors’ staff are proficient in manufacturing, why not go the extra mile and equip your team with excellent communication skills and enhance your after-sales service?
3. Identify the skills within your resources and organise internal knowledge transfer sessions. This will increase the value of your human capital by having more highly skilled people, thereby supporting your succession planning and future leader selection.
4. Soft and business management skills must always be part of any training program. Cross-disciplinary skills are necessary to engage with other experts and fields of knowledge. This distinction is also called T-shaped expertise.

Training not only leads to the acquisition of new skills and knowledge but also to changes in behaviour, cognitive activity, and attitude. This often-overlooked benefit is invaluable for the overall performance of the organisation. Training can also be indirect by allowing others to observe what and how you are doing things or by assigning challenging tasks to unready employees and monitoring them. This is learning from other people. The latter helps build trust between employees, managers, and top management. Nowadays, organisations have become places for both working and learning. From an eagle-eye perspective, we can see the impact of the whole social environment; it makes everyone better every day thanks to this continuous development process.

Dr. Youssef Lamaa