News: Performance Management
Training and development essential, managers told
27 May 2008
Investing in training and development is essential for any business to become successful, it has been claimed.
Sean Taggart, a businessman and member of the government's ministerial advisory panel for leadership and management, also suggested that management skills gaps in small or medium-sized enterprises could hamper their growth.
"We need to get the people at the top of those organisations accepting that investment in training and development, for both themselves and their people, is as essential for their business success as IT or any of the investments decisions they make day in day out," he remarked.
"The person at the top of organisation will define what the business invests in and where it focuses its energy and resources," he added.
Mr Taggart granted that "very few, if any" operations directors deliberately manage their business or their people ineffectively.
He concluded that straightforward awareness is key, primarily of the benefit that good skills development and training can make to a firm's bottom line, but also of where to get help with such training.
Last year's National Employer Skills Survey indicated that almost 163,000 managers in England alone experience a skills gap, of which an estimated three-quarters lack management skills. 
