Published in the New Orleans CityBusiness on November 3, 2020.
Question from Allison D. Craig, I work in human resources at a 200+ employee human services organization. Our CEO has had to reduce our training and development budget this year and I do not anticipate an improvement in 2021. I am worried about retaining our best employees because I know from experience, our turnover increases when we do not develop our employees. Can you give me any advice on what I can tell our CEO to make training a higher spending priority? Thanks, Allison.
Allison, thanks for asking this question. Developing people is a subject near and dear to me and was a priority in my hospital days. I have seen several of the employers I work with reduce training and development (T&D) budgets significantly. Looking at the bigger picture, we both need to understand that the survival of many employers in New Orleans is a very real issue. You and I both need to be realistic about that reality. What worries me most are the companies that continue to keep a tight hold on T&D funds, even when their profits have recovered sufficiently, such that mere survival is no longer an issue. I hope your company has moved past those difficult daily survival decisions.
I recently attended the New Orleans Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annual conference and had a chance to listen to the national SHRM President Johnny Taylor, Jr. speak to these very issues. While I have some thoughts to add, he brings us insights to this challenge from a national perspective. Here are the three critical points he made: