Even in relatively prosperous times, many businesses struggle to meet the pay demands of their staff. It is not that they are unwilling to see hard work properly rewarded. It is just that margins are often so tight that they feel they do not have room to manoeuvre. Add to this the pressure caused by the constant increases in transport costs, power and other overheads, and it seems the only choice is to squeeze salary costs.

Nobody wants their staff to feel undervalued. It is important therefore to look at other ways to increase employees’ overall packages.

Look at increasing annual leave particularly for those employees who have been with you longest. The thought of losing the extra week’s holiday they have built up will often dissuade long serving staff from leaving for higher paid jobs.

Staff will get more job satisfaction, the more control they have. Give them responsibility and the authority to act on that responsibility. You will do less micro-managing and your employee will feel trusted and valued.

Training will not only benefit your organisation in the long run, it will help with your employees’ job satisfaction. Individuals will always appreciate properly targeted training as it demonstrates a company’s commitment to them and their personal development.

Soft skills training is no longer an optional extra. It is essential to people who wish to be recruited into an organisation at whatever level. If you’re not convinced, just take a closer look at today’s situations vacant pages. Where once a list of technical skills were the only requirements for a job, these employers now also seek things such as ‘a good sense of humour’.

When employers ask for a sense of humour, leadership or great team skills, they are making the most of a buyer’s market. They can ask for extras as they will receive many applications from people with the requisite technical skills so they may as well look for people with enhanced soft skills in preference.

In short, organisations seek employees who have more to offer than the basic job skills. For example, leadership is not only essential for management or supervisory positions. It is also required if you would be expected to rise through the organisation over time.

Many organisations also place a high value on being a good team player and will often prefer someone who can get along with their colleagues to a star performer.

Self motivation is also a prized commodity as is communication and the aforementioned sense of humour.

Any training, even if it contains the promise implied in the words “management training” can be forgettable. IT training seems particularly prone to this. So, here are a few suggestions which may assist you in ensuring that the need for refresher courses is kept to a minimum (although it should be stated that refresher courses are a perfectly sensible way of assisting the learning process.)

One important factor when teaching IT skills is the location of the training. By far the most effective place is the workplace of the individual being taught. This allows them to use what they are learning in their everyday job which helps not only show how relevant the training is, but makes it easier for someone to remember it.

Mind maps are useful. The key to using these though is to give people the time at the end of a training session to come up with their own.

If the people being trained are already familiar with the business then a very effective way to work is to divide them into groups, show them the new system and processes and invite them to play. Ask them to come up with a presentation of the new changes.

Training is far more than a gesture to show employees that you care about them. Neither is it intended to be a sop to shareholders to show them how focussed you are on long term profitability. It is a crucial part of any business.

The reason businesses support training is that they want their departments to perform as well as possible and ensure that business goals and objectives are met. In common with other forms of expenditure such as marketing and sales, research and development or even direct costs such as manufacturing or raw materials, organisations expect to see a return on their investment.

The training needs analysis will not only have identified the areas that need to be covered, but also the weaknesses in the organisation as a result of those skills or knowledge gaps. It will be easy to say, therefore, what the organisation is looking for in return for its investment in training. This may be improved customer satisfaction, better compliance with legal requirements, higher sales or profitability, improved productivity or a measurable increase in staff morale.

Whether you are dealing with management training, or more specific areas, it is vital to tie all training to the organisation’s aims.