“If the townspeople are happy, look for the chief.” – Liberian proverb
A career coming to a standstill, economic privation, fear of unemployment, and a competitor who is determined to take the market share of your organisation; these are some of the challenges employees face day in, day out. Whether one is a manager, a subordinate, a boss, a team-leader or a team-member, every employee must be prepared to work in a competitive world, survive, and accomplish the mission of their business. That’s what being employed is all about. Their failure to do this will spell doom for them and the business owner. That’s why the latter also has the headache of enabling and empowering employees to give their best, and in the process position the business to flourish so that employees and employers alike can go home to their loved ones with pride.
This task is not as simple as it sounds. For starters, the business environment is always changing, always evolving. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed society and inflicted tragic losses; it has also brought about defining moments for businesses. Over the last three years, “the crisis has accelerated use of information technology, radically altered customer behaviour, short-circuited business operations and revised how employees get things done”. And as it is with change, many of the attitudes we have cultivated because of the pandemic will continue till they become the norm. In order words, we are creating the future now.
In a nutshell, the business environment has changed – which means the way we treat employees must also change as well. The time has come for businesses to increase their investment in employees. And it should not be a one-off event. Rather, a continuous process which in turn must continually be forward-thinking, innovative and aggressive; both in how they help employees understand the manner in which work is evolving and how they ought to adapt to the new attitudes of consumers; and in how they manage their crisis to how they plan contingencies.
While there are many key areas for employee investment, it is the continuous training programme that wraps all those functions together to create and maintain effectiveness and efficiency of employees. These training programmes should be formulated and implemented on two broad spheres – the individual and collective. The individual training should be exactly as it is, programmes designed to develop the individual skills of employees. And the collective training programmes ought to be designed to integrate trained employees into cohesive and effective teams, whether that team is made up of two members or a thousand.
Training as an investment in employees should not be undertaken just for training’s sake. It should be aimed at helping employees deliver specific measurable levels of performance in everyday interactions with their colleagues and customers. This essence of this inspired General Martin Dempsey – former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States army – to say: “It’s not practice that makes perfect; rather, it’s perfect practice that makes perfect. It is, after all, the seemingly small disciplines and commitment to high standards that makes us who we are and binds us together as a force, an army, in peace and in war”.
Overall, employers should train their employees till they gain an appreciation of how work, and working, is a way of life based on training the mind and body to deliver purposed results. They should be inspired to understand that work is not something they can detach themselves from. Rather, work is an activity within their lives that contributes to attaining the happiness they pursue in this life. To this end, they should be oriented to embrace work as an essential component that makes their lives meaningful.
Providing adequate training for employees is also a critical resourcing effort. Thus, beyond periodic efforts of the businesses, they should encourage their staff to improve upon themselves in ways that enhance their productivity. For example, the time has come for businesses to care if their employees partake in physical exercises. They should desire for their employees to be healthy and strong, to reduce health challenges among them. We all know that physical training positively impacts the mental and emotional strength of individuals. It helps them do their job right in whatever circumstance they find themselves. To this end, the physical fitness of employees should be a priority of businesses.
Ultimately, more and more business owners and leaders should not only drum home the importance of training employees, but they should be part of the training themselves. They should hold themselves accountable for maintaining the effectiveness of their staff, by being sources of inspiration.
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Kodwo Brumpon is a partner at Brumpon & Kobla Ltd., a forward-thinking Pan African management consultancy and social impact firm driven by data analytics with a focus on understanding the extraordinary potential and needs of organisations and businesses to help them cultivate synergies, which catapults them into their strategic growth and certifies their sustainability.
Comments, suggestions and requests for talks and training should be sent to him at kodwo@brumponand kobla.com
