Pu Wassana is no stranger to the idea of investing in employees. Afterall, Pu has been promoting the idea of investing in employees since 1999, first as a consultant, then a training manager, and currently as the Vice President of the People Development Division in Dtac – Thailand’s leading telecommunication service provider.
Her dedication to the employees of Dtac is unquestionable. Since starting Dtac Academy in 2011 with only 4,800 participants, Pu has worked hard to ensure the growth and development of Dtac’s employees. By 2013, the number of participants for Dtac Academy had tripled to 12,000, in a relatively short timespan of two years.
In this article, we will discover why Pu and other succesful companies are so willing to invest heavily in their people, and the tips that Pu has generously shared on how to create a culture of learning within the company.
5 Reasons to Invest In Your People
1) Your Employees are your Secret Weapons
In the case of Dtac, Pu Wassana made no hesistation in declaring that the growth and development of their employees is Dtac’s number one priority; it is the secret weapon that differentiates them from all of the other telecommunications service providers in Thailand.
According to Pu, “In the telecom business, all of the companies use the same technical equipment, coming from either the same vendor or manufacturer. In terms of marketing and pricing, after we launch a product, in a matter of hours, our competitors could just copy it. The only thing our competitor is unable to copy from us is our secret weapon – our people!”
In many markets where the products offered have not much variation and the suppliers are more or less the same, most companies overlook that there is still one factor that can push them above everyone else – their employees.
Take Zappos for instance. While Zappos is a company that sells shoes online (one of dozens), it is extremely popular and even has a cult-like following thanks to its founder’s almost evangelical take towards customer service. And how does he do this? By making delivering happiness – both to his employees and the customers – the goal of Zappos. Founder Tony Hsieh even wrote a book (aptly named Delivering Happiness) on Zappo’s corporate culture, one entrenched in investing in employees.
2) It Builds Loyalty
According to this article at Business Insider, Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of the LaSalle Network explains that investing in employees’ development is the one of the most important things a company should do.
“It’s more cost effective to invest in training sessions for new hires than it is to deal with the amount of emotional and financial damage that employee turnover will cause. It’s best to focus on building up the skills sets of a select, loyal group of workers than to constantly be recruiting people from the outside… The more you invest in training them, the more their loyalty and dedication will pay off in the long run,” says Gimbel.
3) It Improves your Brand Reputation
In the inaugural collaboration with Arizona State University, Starbucks offers its partners (Starbucks-speak for employees) the opportunity to finish their bachelor’s degree with full tuition reimbursement… no strings attached.
While comments online have been filled with questions on what happens when employees who have benefited from the program ups and leaves the company, Howard D. Schultz, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview with New York Times, that even if they left, their experience “would be accreted to our brand, our reputation and our business.”
In other words, Shultz knows that while employees might leave after getting a degree (and they most probably will), his job as a leader is to help them to grow and fulfil their potential. His intent is to genuinely care for his subordinates, and not just the bottom line of the company.
Which person would not look up to a company with those ideals?
4) It Increases Efficiency and Productivity
Zeynep Ton, a Professor of Operations Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, argues that by investing in employees, companies (specifcially, retailers) are actually making operations more efficient.
In her paper “Why Good Jobs are Good for Retailers” published in the Harvard Business Review, Ton writes, “Highly successful retail chains — such as QuickTrip convenience stores, Mercadona and Trader Joe’s supermarkets, and Costco wholesale clubs — not only invest heavily in store employees, but also have the lowest prices in their industries, solid financial performance, and better customer service than their competitors.” The opposite rule applies just the same: retail companies who do not invest in store employees’ trainings generalli scored lower in all aspects than those who do.
In her paper, Ton highlighted a bookstore chain stuck in what she calls a “retailing’s vicious cycle”. While it had the best technologies in available in the industry, it was repeatedly cutting labour costs and essentially, unconsciously, stumping its own growth. Cutting labor costs will help in the short run, but when poorly paid, unhappy employees then promote those same operational mistakes; profits fall, starting the whole cycle over again.
Working with numerous clients across the globe in various industries, consultants at Schuitema would agree that the same rule applies across the board in any sector as well
5) The Consequence? Higher Profit Margins
HR Magazine is quoted in this article as having provided the following figures:
“Companies investing USD $1,500 or more per employee per year on training average 24 percent higher profit margins than companies with lower yearly training investments. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) collected training information from over 2500 firms and found that companies that offer comprehensive training:
a) Have 218 percent higher income per employee than those with less comprehensive training,
b) Enjoy a 24 percent higher profit margin than those who spend less on training, and
c) Generate a 6 percent higher shareholder return if the training expenditure per employee increases by $680.”
While the above reasons might have triggered you to start thinking of ways in which you can help care and grow your employees by investing in them, you might want to consider these 5 tips by Pu Wassana, VP of People Development Division at Dtac Academy.
5 Tips by Pu Wassana on Investing in Your People
1) Begin embedding the culture of learning first from top management
According to Pu, one of the reasons why it was easy for her to increase the number of employees that are in some form of training and development is due to the commitment of the top-level management in Dtac in growing its employees.
“Amongst the Top-50 Management of this company, we are very much aligned with the Care and Growth concept. Hence, it wasn’t hard for me for me to implement a culture of investing in the people as I had great support from higher level management,” says Pu.
Pu too advises that while some management leaders may hold friction to the idea of investing in the people, a committed endeavour to change their opinion through placing them in training, is more often than not fruitful – even if it might take three years (as she has experienced in certain cases).
2) Invest in your people as they are – individuals – instead of a faceless mass
“Two years ago, we had a big organisational change in Dtac, and my division has changed as well. My team got much bigger from 13 people to 40 people, and back then when I knew what was going to happen when it was announced, I scheduled 1-1 meetings with every single one of my team. I sat with them for about an hour each, and I told them my dream of what I would like the future of the Training and Development Finction of Dtac to be like,” shared Pu.
Pu then asked them if they wanted to build this dream with her, and this dream is not to make her richer or to make Dtac richer, but the dream to make our people smarter and work better – a better person. And everyone , unsurpisingly, said “Yes”.
When employees know that you are in it for them personally – as showcased in Pu making the effort and setting aside time for 1-1 meetings, they respond by commiting themselves to your shared cause.
3) Communicate the intent and purpose of the the trainings clearly
“What we are doing in Dtac Academy is to share our philosophy with our Dtac friends (Dtac-speak for employees) – that we want to make our employees smarter, we want to see them learning and having more skills, and as long as we share this same belief and they know this intent, they truly understand that this is also their own intent as well, then we’re on the same page,” shared Pu.
In doing so, she is effectively informing employees that the company is in this for them, and not just for the good of the company. This clear communication debunks any suspicioun or ill-will on the employees part – the nagging question “of what’s in it for them?”. Becuase Pu addresses this doubt very early on and highlights the intention of Dtac’s tranings, this became easy for the employees and leaders to work together.
4) Be consistent in implementing the learning culture
Implementing a culture of Care and Growth and of learning and development, can be hard at first, especially in a company that has been working on the basis of only taking from its employees. MIndsets have to be shifted, people have to be convinced, and naysayers will always have things to complain about.
However, the key to getting over the initial friction, according to Pu, is consistency.
“Consistency is the answer. We have been holding an offsite meeting annually for the past three years, where we get together to work on Care & Growth. On top of that, throughout the year on a quarterly basis, we have Etsko Schuitema himself come in to Dtac as our executive coach, where we schedule 1-1 coaching sessions for Etsko to meet with these people one by one, for 1 hour each,” said Pu.
5) Train your employees to become trainers themselves
Lastly, Pu shared that one of the best ways to exponentially grow a training and development culture is to train the current employees to be trainings themselves.
“I think one of the key factors why we had such a big spurt in training and development was because in 2012 we spent a lot of time and effort to develop our own people to become professional trainers for Dtac,” explained Pu.
By working with current employees, Pu is essentially killing two birds with one stone: she trains and develops employees, and she then turns these employees into living testimonials of a “working” culture. More often thsn not, employees who become trainers are even more passionate than most external trainers as they are more personally invested in the company itself.
Learning, Training, and Development, as a Culture
At Schuitema, our founder Etsko Schuitema is a huge proponent of investing in employees, both in terms of money and time. For the former, we are welcomed to apply for workshops and seminars (paid for by the company) at any time, and the company often hosts retreats of learning that any employee can take part in. As for the latter, Etsko Schuitema regularly schedules 1-1 discussions with the consultants, and our monthly meetings are meetings of learning and development instead of finance reports.
What we have seen from Etsko investing in our consultancy is an increased productivity, a bigger knowledgebase, a stronger relationship between coworkers, higher loyalty, and a constrant stream of fresh new ideas that come from all the learning all the staff members are we doing.
Investing in employees and setting aside budget and time for learning, training, and development may be difficult, but as Pu advises, “It will be hard and difficult in the short term, but if you are determined to try, it will be very much worth it in the long run. Just like coaching, you might have to work double hard to coach someone, but in the long run, it is really worth it.”