For many organisations, perhaps the single most consequential competitive-edge lies terribly under-utilised, namely, the underdeveloped human potential of its employees.
While in SA a great deal of conversation is heard about the skills gap and the criticality of closing this gap to the betterment of the whole of the country's standard of living and world competitive position, few organisations have aggressively and methodically mined the virtual mother-lode of improvement potential lying within its own employees.
Why is this the case?
While there are a myriad of reasons, among the most often heard articulated are that "it doesn't work", "It's expensive and ineffective", "The costs are clear but the benefits illusive" and so on.
The sad truth is that many organisations have made the training investment with little or no resultant benefit. Such an experience tends to lower training among the many organisational mission-critical priorities to the point where it never again receives a serious priority consideration.
Unlike a piece of new capital equipment that is plugged in and begins working properly achieving the planned improvement payback, implementation of training into the organisational culture is much more complicated requiring substantially more experience, planning and process management.
The great irony is that a properly planned, implemented and managed e-learning skills training effort often can provide the largest return on investment of any of the organisation's alternative investment opportunities.
In future editorials, we will explore the critical subject of implementation of state of the art skills development programs. We will provide proven step-by-step processes that will ensure successful implementation.
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