People are the most important assets in any organization. Thus, taking care of the people working in the organization is taking care of the organization itself. It is no rocket science that enhancing the competency level of employees will enhance the organization’s performance. Therefore, the importance of trainings and skill development for employees in an organization is of unspoken primary need. The objective of a training is to support employees to bridge the gap between their expected and actual performance levels. It is best if it can be included in the Performance Management process of an employee to ensure a meaningful development of the employee resulting in the obvious.

Training and Development of employees is something employers should invest in – enhancing skills of employees to support their performance. When we speak about skills, especially soft skills, several employers in Nepal do not feel the need to spend on their employees to develop their skills. What they do not realize is that when people are able to develop their soft skills, they become a complete well-rounded package, in addition to technical skill trainings that they may be exposed to. Through such trainings their awareness is aroused, and they can connect emotionally with the organisation they work in, which results in an increase in engagement with the organisation, which is definitely a win-win situation for both parties.

CFO: “What happens if we train our people and they leave?” 
CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?” 

The above is a much-heard conversation between senior individuals in organisations. Going deeper into the conversation, isn’t it better if an organisation provides capacity enhancing opportunities for their employees (to the possible extent) and has employees so skilled that they would be in demand in the market? Wouldn’t that be something to be proud of? Of course, the challenge will remain in retaining them but that can still be taken care of, to a large extend by various other processes and the culture in the organisation. By other processes, I do not mean other performance management processes which are a different discussion altogether and a vast one too. Anyways, employees do leave an organisation at some point or the other and thus this challenge always remains.

To sum this up, I would like to reiterate the fact that it is extremely important for an organisation to have a talent management plan for every individual which should look at the progress of the individual further leading to the progress of the unit/department the i ndividual  is  in,  and then the match with the organisation goals. Enhancing capacity of workforce in Nepal and retaining them is the need of the hour for organisations and the country!