Staff Development and Training comprise:
•Retention - A lack of learning and development opportunities has been shown to be one of the key reasons people leave an organisation therefore improving this area will have a direct impact on improving retention. (Kearns, 2002)
•Recruitment -currently the difficulty in recruiting experienced planners is causing problems for several authorities. Being able to illustrate the available training as well as development will differentiate you as an employer, potentially giving you a further attractive choice as an employer. (Kearns, 2002)
•Performance improvement - giving employees better skills will not only result in performance improvement but also higher motivation.
• Motivation -learning and development improves motivation plus fundamentally makes employees feel valued. (Kearns, 2002)
• Preparation for the future - helping employees prepare for not only their current role but also future roles means better continuity along with capacity in teams and less uncertainty in addition to reliance on finding the right people at the right time. Training opportunities that fit future roles are obviously vital. It is common for future managers to attend suitable training courses before they move into the role. In-house training courses might be particularly constructive. However, training will only develop an employee to a certain level. Experience inside the role ahead of time is in addition vital. For potential new managers this might comprise identifying small managerial tasks to conduct. Agreeing timescales and reviewing performance after the task will help the employee focus on where they need to develop. Covering workloads during leave is commonly done through the employee's line manager - this is however a missed opportunity to allow the level below to step up and temporarily fills this role. While support is required as of further senior managers, employees have a real chance to test their skills as well as aptitudes. Learning, training and staff development are promoted throughout the organisation. (Sung, 2006)
One of the major reasons why people resign is when they feel that they have stopped learning and developing personally or professionally. The employer obviously has a key role to play to ensure that its employees are faced by means of new challenging tasks along with equipped by means of the skills necessary to deal by means of their work. (Kearns, 2002)
Keep (2006) recommends to maximise opportunities for individual employees to develop their skills and move on in their careers, advising to take sideway moves that vary experience plus make further work more interesting. The traditional approach is through career progression in addition to advancement. This is however not always possible as well as can be accepted by employees, as long as the selection process for promotions is seen as fair. Other options comprise redesigning job descriptions, promoting laterally, when promoting vertically is not possible. Offering further possibilities for development and training of staff, including by encouraging taking a year off in order to go back to university is another option. (Keep, 2006)
As mentioned by Stanfield et al. (2009), humanitarian agencies need to have a coherent training policy and invest in training, even though high turnover can dissuade those who are responsible for making investment decisions as of doing so. (Stanfield et al. 2009)
