A word from our CEO

During the recent, or some would argue continuing economic downturn, the GFC, businesses jettison non essential services. Unfortunately training and education is seen as one of these. Included in these measures to reduce cost, most companies have cut back on sending people to conferences and seminars and looked hard at cutting other expenses.
What organisations fail to consider is the link between training and development and the way it increases productivity and more importantly your bottom line. Companies that grasp this concept and continue to invest in training and development, despite the economic downturn, find themselves at the eventual upturn of their financial position with a workforce more educated, multi skilled and better able to take advantage of future growth.
Well-trained employees are more capable and willing to assume more control over their jobs. They need less supervision, which frees management for other tasks. This is especially relevant to Gen X and Gen Y. They believe training and development is critical as they value the opportunity to advance and make more money. They also want to make a bigger contribution and have a fear of failing or falling behind in a competitive world. Additionally, well trained employees are more capable of answering the questions of customers, which builds better customer loyalty. Employees who understand the business complain less, are more satisfied, and more motivated. All this leads to better management-employee relationships, increased work productivity, moral, performance and results, leading naturally to business profits.
The trends in the unemployment rate over the past thirty years highlight the need for training and development and the benefits that training and development offer businesses. The unemployment rates are related with the sharp contractions of the economic activity and a notable divergence in labour market outcomes between skilled and unskilled workers. Unemployment rates are considerably less for skilled and educated employees as opposed to unskilled.
In a local context I regularly receive calls from businesses looking for “quality candidates” for vacant positions they have. This is an indicator that many job seekers are not job ready and existing employees looking for a change are not adequately trained. Considering that the Dubbo region is about to experience a mining boom, this is concerning not only for new mining entrants in the region but also existing business competing for skilled workers. This makes it all the more important for businesses to have a coherent training plan for their employees to ensure their staff are up and running at full potential and continuing to be developed. As pointed out earlier in this column and in previous articles, well trained employees gain greater job satisfaction. This being the case, it is reasonable to say that they will also display a greater level of loyalty to their employer resulting in increased staff retention rates.
Staff increased staff retention reduces business costs and increases performance momentum. The old school of thinking is why should I pay for the training to have them leave and another employer gets the benefit. Innovative and successful employers see the value of training and its correlation with high performance levels and retention. Given that the national workforce will experience a dramatic demographic shift in the coming years, training and development is more important than ever considering the beliefs and expectation of Gen Y workers.   
The Federal Government also recognised the importance of a trained work force. The National Workforce Development Fund (WDF) offers funding assistance for industries to up skill existing workers, you just need a staff development plan. It makes great business sense to investigate this further. One unique tool Western College has to assist business develop staff development plans is our employee capability system to identify skill gaps and deliver targeting training solutions. The system is target and can feed directly into businesses staff development plans for roll out under the WDF and assist you increase your bottom line; Which after all, is why you’re in business.