Training is no longer a gift November 1, 2009

Knowledge skills, attitudes and experiences are possessions which people acquire for themselves, not gifts which a company or a college can bestow.

I’m not sure about dating this quote. Pat and I have been around this profession for a long time, and the stuff in the drawer wasn’t exactly “new.” But it’s a good quote for today because it points out the dramatic shift we’re seeing in how people become able to do their jobs and where the responsibility for that lies. Just a few years ago, we assumed that “training” was something companies decided was necessary for their employees, and which was peremptorily imposed upon them. The end result was that something got done better or quicker or less expensively. And … this is important … the benefactor was the company.

Today, two things intrude on this old, traditional view of training.

First, although companies are still quick to identify skill deficiencies in their workforce, they are reluctant to invest in expensive training. Why? The employee with all these new skills quickly shops it for a better job and salary down the street. Thus, companies have begun to do more skill hiring than skill creation.

And so, secondly, individual workers have increasingly seen themselves as the determiner of skill acquisition. They seek out companies with liberal training and tuition assistance benefits, and acquire the skills they think are most marketable.

So to get back to Pat’s quote, companies are no longer doing training to workers. Workers are doing it to themselves, and they are at least the initial benefactors.

That’s why we’ve been saying lately that success is no longer about who you know, it’s about what you know. In a portable job market, companies want to know what you can do for them NOW. They want to know what knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences you’re bringing with you that can get the job done today, before you leave tomorrow.

It’s what you know!

Tom
www.lc.edu/cl