Time to Teach Old Dogs New Tricks

[Jon Katz]

Ultimately employees are responsible for their own career development. If you’re not staying on top of trends, new technologies or work practices that could improve your company’s performance, you could be digging your own grave. Even so, that doesn’t mean employers should be exempt from workforce development responsibilities.

After all, who knows how to teach these skills any better than the companies that are hiring? When technology and innovation evolves beyond the current staff’s competencies the all-too-common solution is to fire the veterans and replace them with younger, more-educated workers. But as manufacturers are discovering, there aren’t nearly enough of these highly skilled but green go-getters to go around.

Employers may say they don’t have the time or money to teach the existing staff new skills. I wonder how many dollars and hours they waste seeking this imaginary spigot of talented workers to draw from? A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management backs the idea that building the skills of the current workforce is more critical than focusing on new entrants.

The survey, entitled “Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Workforce,” shows there’s a disconnect between what training employers offer and what their workers think they’ll need for professional development.

Most employers offer some on-the-job training, continuing-education courses or instructor-led workshops. But more than half the employees surveyed say they’d also like to see more coaching or mentoring. We’re social beings who typically crave human interaction, which makes it curious as to why more employers are opting for more online tutorials.

According to the survey, only 31% of employees want more online training, yet half the HR professionals surveyed report increased use of Internet-based tools.

As SHRM President and CEO Susan Meisinger says, “It's critical that those professionals be aware of the issues that contribute to employee motivation and satisfaction."

In other words, employees may want to learn new skills, and it’s likely in the organization’s best interests to provide them with the necessary training, but employers seem to be losing touch with their workers’ career-development needs actually are.