By Josh Sommers
Published: 04/30/10
Marketing and positively positioning your firm in the market starts at home.
You can have the best business-development program, but if your team isn’t equipped to serve the new clients you earn, you’ll go around in circles. A good marketing plan includes equipping your service team to succeed. That’s why I urge small and medium-size businesses to create their own formal training programs for all levels of staff. In large firms, employee training and development programs are top priorities because of their importance in retaining top talent, while advancing staff technical knowledge and enhancing customer service.
Bottom line: If you intend to keep your best employees and better serve clients, you need to invest in long-term professional staff development.
Perhaps the global leader in this area is accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has earned the No. 1 rating in each of the last three years in Training Magazine’s rankings of firms’ employee training programs. PWC’s CEO, Bob Moritz, told the magazine, “By providing our people with the right balance of education, learning experiences and tools, we’re not only investing in their professional development, but ultimately in our ability to deliver the best talent and highest value to our clients.”
Technology to the rescue
Most professions require practitioners to earn continuing professional education credits every year, another example of equipping employees with the technical expertise necessary to perform their jobs at high levels. Naturally, smaller businesses don’t have the resources to invest heavily in training programs, like sending employees to weeklong conferences in San Francisco, but recent technological advancements have made it easier.
Lots of creative options
Interestingly, training programs were among the first budget items to be slashed in past recessions, but most Fortune 500 firms have maintained their commitments to staff development in 2008 and 2009 by turning to technology-based platforms like virtual classrooms and e-learning programs. Many professional organizations offer webinars and podcasts at very affordable prices.
There are many ways that employers can develop personal continuing professional education programs for employees; it just takes a little creativity. Consider these initiatives:
Magazine and newspaper subscriptions: Subscribe to Business Week and the Wall Street Journal, which are both prime sources of business news and trends. Make the Wall Street Journal available to all employees, and create a routing system for Business Week so everyone gets to read it.
Books: Buy a great book about your industry and pay overtime to an employee to read it. Ask the employee to make a brief report on the book at a staff meeting.
Manhattan conference: We are only an hour or so away from Manhattan, the world capital for conferences and seminars. Research the best one-day seminars and send an employee. Again, ask the employee to prepare a report for the staff so everyone benefits.
Webinars: Find the right topic and host a working lunch for the staff.
Adult-education classes: Local school districts and colleges offer a terrific array of adult-ed classes, which are cost-effective and held at convenient times at night or on the weekend.
Investing in your staff is a proven way to keep the business your marketing program earns. Make this investment one of your 2010 business goals.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a leading Hudson Valley advertising and public relations agency. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 294-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at www.advertisingandpr.com. His column appears Fridays.
