G'day it's Justin Hogg from Right Source here talking all things personal development,
training, how much should you spend on training? It is a really interesting
question, I've seen a lot of businesses that put a budget in for training and
they never spend it and I see businesses who don't put any budget in for
training and then spend a whole heap on it, well how do you work out what is the
right amount to spend on training? It's a very interesting question, probably the
the reason training is probably the one of the hardest areas to gauge
is because it's very hard to quantify the benefit, training is a long-term
benefit so whether you're training yourself or whether you're training your
staff, the return that you get out of doing that work is very long and in
its payback so it can take years to see the value or alternatively you can see
the value quite quickly but it actually continues to deliver for a number of
years so there's a long time period in terms of that assessment. I like to break
this down into two sort of main topics one is talking about training for
yourself so if you're the CEO or your the business owner, how much should I spend
on myself? And the other is just staff, the training of your staff, so when you
look at yourself, again within the expenditure you want to do, what are you
looking to achieve? Is it technical knowledge? Are you looking for personal
growth? Are you looking for just experience? Understand what it is you're
trying to achieve out of that out of that learning that will then help
dictate how much you can spend or how much you should spend so because again
if there's a certain amount of value you see in it well, you shouldn't spend more than
the value now that is tricky again with training to understand what the value is
but at least having try and think about it gives you a bit of a feel.
The other thing with training that's interesting is that the cost tends to
relate to how fast you want it, whether you want recognition and how
personalised it is, those three things, so if you are happy to take your time you
don't need a certificate at the end, and you don't need someone holding your
hand to do the training or be there one-on-one,
usually the cost for training can be really cheap like YouTube for example
like this video, cos it's training, it's free, so there's a lot
of free material out there that you can use that helps you learn, that helps you
grow ,that you don't have to pay for, on the flip side, if you want something
delivered to you quickly, if you want to get a certificate at the end that proves
that you are have that qualification or you want someone to personally train you
and be hands-on and and help you develop really specifically, that's going to cost
money, for example, if you want to get fit quickly, a personal trainer, that personal
service will help you do that more effectively because you've got
accountability to a person someone's customising it to you and you'll get
better results quicker but it will cost you more than if you just went to the
gym or if you just did it at home, it will tend to be a different cost but the
outcomes will be different, similarly with recognition, honestly most people
could train themselves how to be an accountant, it's not actually rocket
science, rocket science is a bit harder so you could do that online with
materials like this, with the resources that are available you could learn how
to do accounting, if you want to however have a certificate to say that hey, look,
I have done the courses and I am competent as an accountant that costs you
more money cos you need to go through an organisation that has that registration
process so again, ultimately, the outcomes could be the same, the cost is just going
to be different, so understanding what you want to achieve, how quickly you want
to achieve it and why you want to achieve it, is important when you're
looking at your own training. Personal growth is one of the most interesting
areas of training I find and that really comes into your coaching and your
mentoring sort of sphere because there is an amazing range of people who offer
that service who offer different aspects to that, the rates that you pay differ by
quite a lot, when you're looking to get a coach or you're looking to do some
personal growth that is actually probably the hardest
decision in terms of working out what's the right place to start, how I
approach it is looking for someone who can, well actually,
the first thing, even before you look for somebody, you actually, if you want
personal growth you actually need to be ready for it yourself and it comes to
different people at different times, the value that I see out of that that
personal growth type training is it usually allows you to bring in the
skills that you've learnt, the experience that you've got, the values that you have,
and help elevate those to a new level that's really what it is, so you really
want to find someone who can add something new or a different perspective
and help create something better, I mean that's what trainings all about is about
self-improvement and self growth so how much you spend on that, I've spent more
than I thought was possible on personal development but I would say that I've
had that investment returned multiple times in terms of what I've been able to
achieve so, it is a leap of faith but find the right person and it'll
definitely add some value to your life, in terms of your staff it's a bit of a
different question, for me personally if what we should be looking at with our
staff is if there's training that helps them do their job better they should do
it because as a business owner if they're doing their job better you're
going to get value out of that, plus if they want to be doing that training like
if they're actually asking to do training to allow them to do their job
better, well that for me is a great situation because one: they're engaged
they want to do their job better and two: as a business owner they're asking you
first for help in doing that job and expenditure that will effectively be
reinvested back in the business through more efficiency or more accuracy which
is all beneficial to the owner as well as the staff member, so, for me that type
of training is almost a no-brainer and is a yes on more instances than it's a no
What's tricky as a business owner and what I see people grapple with is well
say they want to get a professional qualification to help them do that job
sometimes a business owner goes well hey, hold on a second, if they get
that professional qualification they can take that when they leave, well
that's not fair, I've paid for that, they shouldn't get to keep it, so what they
tend to do is find a way to trap that employee in the business there well you
can do this professional qualification but if you leave you need to pay for it
So it sort of traps the employee now I understand the logic behind that but I
philosophically think that's the wrong move, my view on training is that you
should be training your employees to leave but having a workplace in a work
environment that convinces them to stay, whenever I'm looking at training
something and growing them I want to make sure that yeah sure they're doing
training that helps them do their job but for people to stay engaged in your
workplace they need to feel like they're growing and that they're developing as a
person in that workplace - and that isn't always something they can do on
the job, so there is definitely an aspect of being able to provide training that
helps with personal growth or just staff engagement of your staff that you know
helps keep them engaged with the business and that shouldn't be something
that they have to pay you for, if you have your staff engaged and they like
working at their place of employment well then they'll stay and you'll get
the benefit that you that you invest in them in terms of their training and
again training is a long play, it's a long game, so even if staff leave, you
want to have a workplace and a work environment, if their self development
then it allows them to come back in a different role, that is an opportunity
and then not only do you benefit on the training you've given them, you benefit on
them going and taking that training and applying it somewhere else and coming
back with more knowledge and skills to the business so I think that whole "don't
spend money on people unless they're going to stay" I think that's the wrong
mindset you should be spending money on people to help them get better, add value
to your business and focus on keeping them engaged in the business and you
know valued, which by spending money on them they do feel valued so I think it's
a self-perpetuating cycle, either way you go. Brass tacks, staff
training: how much do you spend? Well for me, in most roles, there is some sort
of technical skill required whether that be simply using Excel or using software or
how they do their job or safety there's always something that someone
can get trained on or refreshed on, even CPR Safety Officer I mean that's valuable
for your workplace, it's valuable for them, so I, as a ballpark like to say look
probably 1 to 2 grand a year I would spend on staff in training as just a
base guide now what's very important here is don't get trapped in the "we
haven't budgeted for the training so we can't spend it" this is, whenever you set
a budget for training it is, should only ever be a guide, if something comes up in
terms of a new skill someone wants or a new area of work that opens up through
getting some training that should be looked at in isolation and without
regard necessarily to the budget, so basically don't use your budget as a
constraining factor when it comes to training, use it as a guide, that's all
it's meant to be, so that's really my thoughts on training and how you sort of
think about it from, well, how I help people think about it from a business
perspective, breaking into two parts thinking about for yourself, thinking
about for your staff, always being aware of what goals you want to achieve out of
that training, and thinking of it as an investment rather than a cost because it
is a long-term play not, not a short-term cost. Hope you found that
interesting or a bit of a different perspective I suppose on training costs
we've got a number of videos here on YouTube in terms of helping you and your
business move forward and achieve its purpose so definitely feel free to check
those out and if you want to keep seeing these videos subscribe and if you've any
comments or questions definitely happy to answer them, chuck them in the
comments below, I'll definitely try and get back to you look me up a LinkedIn
and send me a direct message, happy to help where I can.
I suppose in terms of in a training aspect, if you do want someone to help
you with your financial aspects or financial mentor that is definitely a
service we offer and help people grow in terms of their understanding of the
financial aspects of the business so if that's something that interests you
definitely feel free to reach out, happy to have a conversation, otherwise until
next time it's Justin Hogg from Right Source thanks for watching!