The Importance of Investing In People – Part 1
Why It’s Important to Invest in Your Team
There’s an old office joke that goes like this:
CFO asks CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us?”
CEO: “ What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”
While it’s funny, it’s also incredibly true. Most of us intrinsically know that it’s important to invest in our employees, but we don’t often talk about why. Let’s break it down. Here are 4 reasons to invest in your team:
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO INVEST IN YOUR TEAM?
1. It Shows You Care
Genuinely caring about your employees is underrated in business. It can be easy to fall into the trap of focusing on numbers and quotas (especially in a management position), letting the human side of the relationship fall by the wayside. Not only does that affect the quality of the work, it also affects team members’ loyalty to the company.
2. It Creates New Opportunities for Growth
Making room for growth keeps your team members and your company from stagnating – and helping your team get better at their jobs only makes the work better as a whole. If someone does grow so much that they leave, you better believe they’ll talk about their experience at your company, and you want it to be positive. That can only help your brand. Besides, you never know, what if they weren’t the right fit for the job, but they have a friend that would be.
3. Technology is Rapidly Changing
Whether we like it or not, we live in a new world. Technology is constantly changing, so we have to reinvest in our people if we want to keep up with it. A veteran worker can become a noob overnight, and folks have to train regularly in order to stay current. It’s not reasonable to ask them to do all this learning and training on their own time and dime, so we need to provide it for them.
4. Nobody is an Expert Forever
With things rapidly changing, how long can anyone really be an expert these days? What happens when the company’s needs demand a new skill? We could take the time to hire someone new: post the job, conduct the interviews, onboard them, etc. – OR we could teach somebody on staff that already has reasonable experience. The latter builds an employee’s self-esteem and repertoire — and their loyalty to the company.
Ultimately, you have a choice. You can expand the skill set of your team, or you can hire out whenever a new need presents itself. At a glance, it may seem tempting to skip the extra investment, but that’s like choosing a 1-Minute Ab program over a 10-Minute Ab program. The 10-Minute Ab program is a little more work each day, but how much return do you really think you’ll get from 1-Minute Abs? Probably one ab, if you’re lucky.
Skill up. Always skill up.
That was 4 reasons to invest in your team. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. How do you feel about investing in people? Be sure to check out Part 2 here. Also, check out my podcast!