A Smart Investment: Training Your Employees is the Best Defense Against a Recession
By Ric Kositzke
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Whenever the economy takes a detour, pricy amenities are always slashed from corporate budgets. First on the chopping block is travel. Then entertainment, followed by HR scrapping plans for an extravagant holiday party.
This year, a more disturbing trend is starting to emerge. According to a web poll conducted by SmartBrief, 37% of professionals anticipate a major cut to training spending in 2009. This bleak outlook is backed by numerous analyst reports forecasting training as unnecessary fat that will be trimmed by companies.
Yet, those of you who regularly participate in workshops, technical conferences, and other professional development activities know this thinking is flawed; if anything, developing your skills is the best defense against a slumping economy and, in the long run, reducing cost for your employer.
Let’s examine this issue more closely. Recently, a high throughput laboratory received hands-on training on its newly purchased FT-IR spectrometer. Dr. Michael Murphy, head of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Molecular Training Program, guided the training and ultimately saved the company a considerable amount of money while also increasing productivity after one training session.
“I found that the method they were using for analysis was much more difficult and time consuming than it needed to be,” said Murphy, who was as excited about the discovery as his students. “Through the use of a sampling accessory on their spectrometer, they were able to slash their sample preparation from half an hour to less than one minute, and the quality of their data was vastly improved. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the training visit was to see how happy the end users were that such a cumbersome task had been reduced to something approaching trivial, which gave them additional time for other tasks.”
It bears repeating: This gain in productivity resulted after a single training session. Imagine the gains—both in dollars and efficiency—that would occur should the laboratory reinforce this newfound knowledge through more advanced training? Quite frankly, this is how companies differentiate and thrive in desperate economic times. Murphy agrees, “Many customers find that they see an increase in productivity as their end users gain a better understanding of the capabilities of the instrumentation that they are working with.”
With that being said, the person most responsible for making sure training avoids the chopping block is you. Staying silent around budget time may mean the difference between learning a new technique that will help you tremendously in the lab versus spending the year in reactive mode.
Said Murphy, “The laboratory professional is often the person most directly impacted by a reduction in training. While instruments are replaced and software upgraded, there is usually little opportunity for the lab professional to go through the trial and error process with software and instrumentation to learn the nuances that make analysis and data processing faster, and yield higher quality results. This leads to the continued use of outdated analysis techniques, which cost more time and money in the long run than detailed training would have cost up front.”
This is why he marvels at how one course can make a tremendous impact, and not just for the laboratory. “By attending a training course, the professional’s resume is improved by the addition of skills that range from sample preparation to better detailed theoretical knowledge. The courses that we offer include hands-on learning to accompany the theoretical knowledge and as an added bonus, all of our Molecular Spectroscopy training institute courses are accredited through the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. These courses allow the professional to earn continuing education units which lead to a certificate program through attending courses. This increases marketability and promotion opportunities for the lab professional.”
In the 2007 American Society for Training & Development’s State of the Industry Report, U.S. companies spent approximately $130 billion on training. More interestingly, companies had spent on average, $1,040 per employee, up 1.76% from 2004. Training, it seemed, had finally earned a permanent roster spot on annual budgets. Yet, with the economic downturn rearing its ugly head, expect training spending across the board to be down in 2009.
That is, unless, you have something to say about it.
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