Corporations should invest approximately 10% of the payroll cost in training for their workers. Photo: Pixabay
Employers are looking for the best talent available to their companies, and universities are preparing future employees and entrepreneurs based on the design of their strategic and competitive models. However, we are living in a world of constant change and unstoppable dynamism that requires updating of models, events, theory, evolution and processes, which demands having organizational cultures and soft skills that cover these requirements. The great majority of the organizations and their collaborators are not achieving aptitude for this dynamism.
Corporations should invest approximately 10% of the payroll cost in training for their workers, according to estimates of some Human Resources directors from different industries; however, this amount can be increased up to an additional 50% when it is a new employee.
This amount depends on business policies, financial situations, firm competitiveness, assigned investments and current growth strategies.
The training, usually, is focused on technical skills of the company: how to operate a machine, a business system, Excel, English, among others. However, there is little focus on perfecting soft skills and organizational culture focused on developing an environment of constant change.
In order to foster a business context of change and to keep up with the current competitive demand, 2 important initiatives are needed.
1. Culture and processes of the company
Few organizations implement change programs aimed at evolving the strategy and the business through the behavior of their employees. Creating an environment where the operational models are being challenged by technology and the lack of proposals, ideas and initiatives for optimization and continuous improvement by employees, make the corporation does not move in the right direction or at the right speed.
2. Adaptation to changes
Amplify attitudes and aptitudes from the classroom, so that employees or future employees can adapt to these cultures of change. Few universities are really emphasizing mature soft skills; practices such as communication, patience, belonging, teamwork, persistence and persuasion, to name a few, are experiences that there was no way to know who has developed them and how, these, could accelerate the process of necessary change. Currently there are institutions that are doing this monitoring, to train their students with experiences for a more competitive and dynamic world.
To the extent that students and future practitioners have the right soft skills, and employers the ability to identify or validate them, the cost of training and communicating change will be significantly reduced, as they may have "ideal" employee profiles.
In the end, having those professionals who have an attitude of learning, perseverance, conflict resolution and with that having a high performance culture and personnel, will take the competitiveness of the organization to other levels.
* Author: Ramón Murguía, Institutional Director of Marketing of Aliat Universities.