We all know how important it is to invest in your future. One way to do this is by investing in professional training and development. Asking the company to fund these types of expenses can be challenging, but not impossible. We have created an email template you can use to share the idea and get buy-in from your manager. And below that are some tips that will help you get them on board with funding professional training and development going forward.
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1. Begin by identifying the skills you need to develop
Begin by identifying the skills you need to develop ~~~ The first step is figuring out what skills or knowledge gaps exist among your staff members so that they can receive appropriate training and/or take relevant courses at a university or other institution. It’s difficult to convince someone else how much something will benefit them if they don’t understand how it will help them.
2. Determine what type of training will best suit your needs, whether it’s on-site or online
Once you’ve identified the skills you need to develop and how you’ll measure their acquisition, your next step is determining how and where that new knowledge and skills will be acquired. There are a number of different options – depending on how flexible your company is – to choose from:
o On-site training: Training employees at the company’s headquarters, which minimizes disruption to their work schedules. However, this option may not be as feasible for those located in rural areas or those who live too far away from your company’s headquarters.
o Online training: A great solution for those with less experience or who need to take the training from a location that requires less travel time.
o In-person + online: A great option for those who would benefit from in-person instruction and flexibility of when they can access or complete their coursework, such as working parents with school-age children.
o Blended learning: The best solution for those who would benefit from both in-person and online training, such as those with physical disabilities that may prevent them from traveling or working parents.
o Virtual learning: A great option for companies that can’t afford to pay employees while they attend a course or workshop offsite.
3. Find a way to make the case for funding professional development
You can’t expect anyone else to understand how important this is, how it will benefit them, and how best to go about acquiring that knowledge unless you show how it will help them. One technique is to find out what skills they would like their team to have in the future and how training or education could help them get there. What do they need from their employees? How does upgrading their skills help the company’s present and future goals?
4. Discuss how this investment in your career will benefit them as well as you
Many employers understand how investing in their employees can benefit the company, but don’t realize how it could also benefit them. Why should they pay for something that won’t directly benefit their company? The answer is that professional development not only benefits an employee’s work performance, it can make them a better leader and decision-maker.
5. Offer alternatives that are less expensive and time-consuming if they don’t want to give money but still want you to improve yourself professionally
If your company is not willing to provide funding for a course or other training, offer a way to pay for it on your own, such as creating a budget and cutting back on something else later on. You can also offer to work more hours or take on other responsibilities in exchange for the time off. If you’re still unsure how much they value your professional development, consider how well-prepared they are when discussing salary negotiations with you. Another option is working at a less expensive company that offers great training opportunities or reimburses its employees’ tuition costs.
6. Find out how much your company invests in professional development
If you decide to search for how much other companies offer their employees for professional development, you will find that there is quite a discrepancy in how much the employers pay. For example, Xerox offers $2,500 per employee and American Express offers $5,000 per year for tuition reimbursement while Wells Fargo doesn’t offer any money at all. If your company pays for tuition reimbursement how does it compare with the competition?
Why not invest in professional development? It’s a risk for both parties.
Some people think that investing in their employees’ careers is just a nice thing to do, but it’s also a wise business decision. Investing time and money into your employee’s training will benefit them as well as you by making them better leaders and decision-makers. In order to make this investment worthwhile, you need to find out how much other companies offer their employees for tuition reimbursement or how they compensate those who take courses offsite or online. You should also consider how the company values your career growth when negotiating salary because if they don’t value it enough to pay for professional development, then why would they want to hire someone with more experience?
Asking how your company can fund professional development might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. By considering how the investment will benefit them as well as you and how much other companies invest in their employees’ careers, you should be able to find an answer that works for everyone. Consider how this training could make you more valuable on the job market or how it would help your current work performance before deciding whether or not investing is worthwhile for both parties. If all of this sounds intimidating and you want help enacting these principles, then download one of our email templates for our Lean Six Sigma training.
