1. An organization's ability to
learn, and translate that
learning into action rapidly,
is the ultimate competitive
advantage.
Jack Welch
How to Maintain Company Competitiveness in a Rapidly Changing
Technology Market With Proactive Employee Training Initiatives
Many companies seem to view employee
training and development as more
optional than essential...a viewpoint that
can be costly to both short-term profits
and long-term progress. The primary
reason training is disregarded is because of its perception as an expense
rather than an investment. While understandable due to the difficulty of
determining directly measurable results at times, such views can be
extremely costly to the bottom line, due to lack of employee retention,
productivity, and market viability. Studies have shown that companies that
invest significantly in employee training experience an average of 24 percent
higher gross profit margins and 218 percent higher revenue per employee.
Effectively positioned company to compete in evolving market
and increased job security of over 20 team members by
developing and implementing program to update abilities of
team in programming languages and development skills.
Situation
This had the potential to become a significant issue at one company. While
there were teams working in a web-based product environment, there was
no internal training program for developers to maintain or modernize their
skills, and the core product was written in a legacy desktop application
language. A long-term replatforming project to a web-based platform was
scheduled, but it was left to the development teams and members not
directly involved in the project to enhance their skills independently.
Solution
In conjunction with the senior members of the team, we began to develop
an internal peer training program for two hours per week to update and
modernize the skills of the team as well as expand their skills in preparation
for joining the replatforming team in the future. The program began with 2
peer trainers and 3-5 participants, with training in basic Java for those with
legacy programming skills and an enhanced Java discussion to improve the
skills of the experienced members. Once established, we expanded the
program for any members of the development organization, and over the
course of 3 years, the voluntary program grew to include 5 different peer
trainers and up to 25 total participants and was expanded to include several
modern technologies such as HTML5, CSS, JQuery, and AJAX.
Result
This strategic technical training initiative enhanced company
competitiveness by allowing a rapid ramp up of the replatforming project
without having to add additional resources, aided in modernization of
current products to enhance client retention, and improved employee
retention and satisfaction. The program was lauded by the participants, and
was singled out for recognition by the CEO of the company.
Tom DeStasio,
Director of
Product
Development
strategy ♦ innovation ♦ execution | Tom DeStasio | (949) 892-3638 | tomdestasio@gmail.com | www.linkedin.com/in/tomdestasio
Assess Market
Trends in
Programming
Assess
Defeciencies in
Staff Skill Base
Design and
Implement Training
to Upgrade Skills
Pursue Clients
Offering New
Capabilities