I very often hear people justify not training their employees with the age old argument ‘If I Train My Employees… They Might Leave.’ One of the funniest responses to this I have heard is from Zig Ziglar who says ‘If you don’t train your employees… they might stay!’.

All humor aside, ignorance is never a good employee retention policy. For example, one company we worked with had a 75% turnover. This meant that 3 out of every 4 employees leave each year. When we discussed employee trianing, it turns out that they never train, nor do they promote from within. They went silent when we asked them… ‘So, am I correct to understand that everyone at your company is in a dead-end job’.

Unless your company has a true culture of learning and advancement, sending only one or two people to specialized training provides them credentials not applicable to your production environment. For example, ‘5S’ training provides great information… but sending one employee out for a couple days of training will not transform the attitude and actions of your entire workforce.

Ask yourself two questions… (1) do you have enough ‘key’ people on your production floor…? and (2) are any of your production employees in ‘dead end jobs’…?

The goal here is not to sell…  but to help people understand that you need a plant-wide focus on improving the skills of the entire workforce so ultimately, everyone shares the load.

-Andy