Why Credit Crunch Cutbacks Must NOT affect your staff training programme.

Not only are some businesses making dangerous decisions on reining back their marketing efforts to cut costs during the economic downturn, some are even slashing their investment in staff training; a move that could have long-term negative consequences. But there is an answer to this risky attitude: don't cut training altogether, just cut the cost! By switching to video training a business can continue to be competitive and still save money.

Leading lights in the Human Resources field have warned that budget cutbacks involving putting staff training on hold until things start to look up financially is a false economy that could have dangerous consequences for businesses.

A study conducted by Common Purpose *, an international leadership development organisation, showed that just under half of all training and development professionals were expecting training budgets to be cut by at least 20%.

Why Credit Crunch Cutbacks Must NOT affect your staff training programme

What happens if a lack of investment in your staff means they defect to one of your competitors?

Short term savings could spell long term damaging consequences. A lack of investment in staff reduces morale and could result in key personnel seeking employment elsewhere where training is still on offer. The loss of the expertise provided by important staff members could be very detrimental because these are the very people that could steer the business out of crisis and help it grow. And what is even more worrying is that if staff defect to a competitor, they will be fuelling their efforts to make their business work, spelling bad news for the former employer.

Not keeping up to date with training lowers market competitiveness

The problems continue: a lack of training means staff are not kept up to date with the latest developments in systems and technology, thus cutting a company's competitiveness and leaving them lagging behind with a training deficit to make up once the crisis has turned.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has warned that slashing training budgets could have an undesirable effect on a company's ability to survive the economic slowdown. Their chief economist John Philpott said: "Training cutbacks reduce the ability of organisations to cope in a downturn and can also damage staff morale, employee engagement and organisational performance for years to come."

How to cut the cost of training

So what can a business do to keep learning and development top of the agenda when funds are at an all time low?

The answer lies in cutting the cost of training. External training courses are not only costly in terms of finance, but also in terms of losing staff working hours for days at a time. Hiring in-house trainers is slightly less disruptive to the working day, but far more expensive. And giving staff a manual to read really is no comparison for demonstrative training. So what is the solution?

Video Training. No longer limited to the major names in software packages, video training is becoming extremely popular and its benefits are many. Not only is it far more economical to commission a training video than it is to send staff on training courses, video training is also far more adaptable. Instead of generalised training, you can commission the production of a video to teach specific skills and methods that are relevant to each member of staff, and what is more, they can follow them at their own pace.

Training videos can be viewed via a company's website; an intranet or a CD or DVD. They can incorporate images, captions, voiceovers and anything else that may help illustrate how a system works.

Switching to video training is a wise move that could not only save money, but put businesses ahead of their competitors.

Core Media Design provides a professional training video production service. Whatever system, programme or software you use, we can make a video to explain how all of it or just a relevant section of it works. The service is completely flexible and we can handle even the most industry-specific systems.

For more information on this service please see our Video Training page.

* Common Purpose website: www.commonpurpose.org.uk

Published on: Saturday, 8th November 2008

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