From: bizjournals.com

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Alice Waagen regularly answers workplace and management questions from reader s.

Q. Any advice on how to deal with younger employees who are constantly looking for training programs to increase their leadership and managerial skills? I have no problem with sending someone to a workshop or two now and then. I have one manager who handed me a development plan that calls for seminars every quarter. I can’t help but think that I am investing all this money to train her and she’ll then leave and go work for someone else. How can I get a return on the training dollars I invest in people?

Alice says: I see that you have two choices: develop your managers into strong leaders with the risk that they leave or don’t develop them and they’ll stay. The first choice gives you fully capable leaders, the second choice results in a management core that is untrained in how to lead others. To me there is no choice here; you need to continuously develop your talent. Don’t curb development, leverage it instead as a powerful retention tool.

That said, you do not want people to be taking seminars and workshops without some form of a plan with specific outcomes. One way to see return on your development dollars is to create development plans tied to the achievement of specific skills and abilities that a person needs to achieve their goals and objectives. For example, if you have a manager who tends to micromanage staff, increasing their delegation skills would allow them to transfer work more effectively, potentially freeing them up to take on more strategic assignments.

Tying the learning to specific, observable behaviors give you feedback that their skills are improving, thus giving you a return on the time and dollars invested. When someone asks to be sent for training, require them to define for you what positive change will occur with the learning. Look for it, measure it and provide feedback that their growth is valued and will be rewarded with more development opportunities in the future.

I also challenge you to coach your managers into seeing learning in a broader context beyond seminars and workshops. There are good virtual resources that can be used to grow skills and knowledge. A number of leadership authors and researchers have online instructional videos. Search Ted Talks and YouTube to see hours of free leadership presentations.

Challenge your managers to research good online leadership content and lead discussions about what they’ve learned. Online resources can provide a wealth of content that is free or inexpensive and can be scheduled more flexibly than a public workshop.

Tap relevant professional associations for development programs. Many have webinars, conferences, mentor programs and peer learning groups to provide professional development for their members at minimal cost.

Remember: Cost and content are secondary considerations. Always start with a plan. Learning outcomes need to be aligned with either current performance expectations or growth potential for the manager. When key talent has the opportunity to grow skills and knowledge in a way that directly impacts their performance and future aspirations, they don’t leave a company. One intangible return on development investments is loyalty. You can’t put a concrete dollar on loyalty, but faced with the cost of talent replacement, development expenses are minimal.