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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT. GAINING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
With so many educational resources catering to the promotional marketing sector, it’s never been a better time to invest in staff. And according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, there are over 15 different learning interventions – including on the job, e-learning, mentoring, secondment and project working (not forgetting the dreaded courses and seminars) – each designed to achieve something different for the user.
So why doesn’t it happen? Money is one reason; time away from the desk is another, lack of innovation and planning another and short termism a fourth.
Government and other statistics suggest that smaller businesses train and develop their staff less than larger organisations. The promotional marketing sector in particular tends to lag behind other industries in terms of staff development, but there is growing evidence that shows that any business, regardless of type or size, can benefit from making its staff more knowledgeable. And there can be financial benefits, a business payback in other words
“The question is not just how much your training will cost, but how much it will cost if you don’t train.”
Businesses must take a longer term view. As businesses strive to gain a competitive advantage this is one way to achieve it. A business’s commitment to learning needs to be higher up the business agenda, at all levels from Director downwards.
Chris Bestley, director of education at the Institute of Sales Promotion (ISP), says staff learning and development can help both individual companies in the promotional marketing sector as well as improve the industry as a whole. “It can prevent mistakes, it can make unproductive junior staff productive sooner by converting them from a net drain to a net income generator to the company and, at more senior levels, it will prevent very expensive mistakes both in terms of income wastage and loss of clients,”
“Effective training is not about rewarding your workforce. It is about addressing critical business issues in a thoughtful and systematic way
Bestley believes continuous professional development, which lawyers are required to do as part of their membership of the law society, is “as relevant in our industry as in any other industry and we should be putting it higher up the agenda. If we believe we’re a profession with as much maturity and clout as the legal profession, we should take that seriously too.”
BPMA Member, P&MM, which came 30th in this year’s Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For in the UK in 2006, uses a combination of informal and formal training as well as coaching to develop its staff. The Sourcing Team, another BPMA member sees it as a commitment by the company to the employee but it also improves loyalty and professionalism.
A version of this article appeared in Promotions Buyer
