Staff Smart

Training your talent could be the smartest business decision you make in 2011.

Here’s why: It could transform your company into a more efficient and effective organization, enabling it to take on new clients—or possibly even new revenue-generating business sectors. Experts say employees will be empowered by seeing their company investing in training and development, amid lingering concerns about the economy.

“I think everybody is trying to be as efficient as they can with what they already have,” says Charles Ingram, CEO of Bonita Springs-based Veritas Employer Services, a full-service Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The firm offers customizable human resources, payroll and employee benefits to companies with more than 100 employees around the nation.

What ultimately is a company’s greatest resource—its people—shouldn’t be ignored.

Organizations that offer career development opportunities are six times more likely to engage employees than organizations that don’t, and those who receive additional training are two-and-a-half times more likely to be productive, according to a study by Linkage, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in leadership development. It also found that organizations are four times less likely to lose talent in the next year if they’re training and investing in employees for their personal and professional growth.

For the employee, the value could be seen in a promotion or pay increase, and also having more qualifications if they re-enter the labor force in the future.

“When people invest in you, you feel like they care about you,” says Lorna Kibbey, president of the Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development.