Have you ever been in a management meeting discussing how to get better strategic results and the focus turns to where to invest resources? Where does this discussion usually go? If your organization is like so many others, the discussion goes quickly to investing in technology and equipment. If you are like me, you jump up and down imploring the team to invest in people.
A recent Industry Week/MPI survey supports what those in the HR/OD profession already know yet find so difficult to communicate convincingly. This survey confirms that the most successful organizations achieve superior business results by doing a couple of simple things:
• Investing in selecting, developing, and retaining talent
• Building a high performance work culture by investing in everyone, from the CEO to the front line employee.
The empirical evidence is out here. As strategic level professionals, it is our responsibility to gather this evidence and package it in a way that our fellow executives can relate to. The bottom line from Development Dimension International’s (DDI) interpretation of this survey data is summarized as follows:
“Organizations…are willing to spend vast amounts of money for marginal improvements in equipment and technology. Yet new data proves that an investment in hiring effectiveness, leadership development, and training can create far greater returns.”
That’s right! Now it’s my responsibility to convince the executive team to invest in training and development. Using the empirical evidence that exists should make this a more positive and successful venture.
Tim Nieboer
Sr. Consultant/Partner, Quantum Services, Inc., tim@qsiteam.com
MBA Adjunct Faculty: GVSU, Davenport University
