DW's Blog

Employee Development

by DW Green — January 18, 2017

Stakeholders all feel the loss when a company fails.

I read in Supermarket News yesterday that “Walmart plans fivefold increase in training facilities. Walmart plans to open 160 new training academies by summer to provide training for nearly a quarter-million workers in the coming fiscal year.” Yikes! That’s impressive. And very wise!

In the end it is employees who make the difference. No amount of merchandising or advertising can be successful over the long run without a dedicated, knowledgeable staff. If employees don’t support your market position or advertising claims, your efforts will be undermined.

To build a company that is profitable, enduring, and able to hold its own against major competitors, managers need to foster a sense of community among employees. Above all, employees must share common values. This means recruits should be judged as much on the basis of their fit with the company’s values and principles as they are on the basis of their ability to fulfill the technical requirements of the job.

People should be hired into your company with the understanding that they are there to develop their potential. You must ensure that processes are in place to assess individual potential, ensure adequate training and development, evaluate performance, and provide graceful exits from the company. If employees don’t pull their weight or share the company’s values, they must move on. At a certain point, managers must be prepared to pass the baton, as well, so the company can continue to renew itself.

Employee training and development is critical if your company is to remain a leading contender in the market. After all, competitors can copy prices and programs, but they cannot clone people. The costs of recruiting, training and developing the right people are high. But the cost of not supporting these efforts is much higher because employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders all feel the loss when a company fails.