Don't Lose Priya

Her name is Priya.  She came to Cincinnati from New Delhi, India in September of 2007 on an H1B Visa.  She is a hard worker for her company – one any company would be thrilled to have.

One of the concerns Priya has is that her company has provided little training.  Being that education is a top value for her, she is concerned that she is getting left behind in her field.  While some of her friends are getting more versed in developing mobile applications, creating web based document management systems, and handling security issues, she continues to be focused on the same programming work as when she first came to America five years ago.

Since her employer has not invested in helping Priya for the past five years, she is actively looking for a better work situation.  It is not a better salary that is motivating her.  Rather, she is motivated by the need to work on technologies that are current and will help her keep her skills current – and which also make her even more valuable to her employer.

During this recession, many of our clients stopped investing in education for their staff.  Now that they are running profitably, many have still not added training back in.  We have seen the negative affect of neglecting employee training in the past few quarters as more IT staff are leaving for better opportunities.  

For example, one of our clients recently lost a key infrastructure person to Juniper.  Juniper is focused on establishing a presence in this region and is hiring people away from companies like yours.  The manager with whom I spoke said this person is “irreplaceable.”

Another client lost one of their key IT people to a growing medium-sized company.  One of the employee’s key motivating factors for leaving was having the ability to implement his ideas for improving the business (through improved technology). 

The number of companies vying for your staff has increased significantly in 2012.  Will investing in education lessen the possibility that you would lose a person like Priya ?

Yes, you know it does. You have experience with this and you are smart enough to know that investing in building your employees increases longevity.

And of course, there are always other factors you can’t control that impact longevity – spouse transfer, wrong cultural match, etc.  But do you want to risk losing those people like Priya who are looking for further development – especially when investing in training only helps both of you in the long run?

If you would like to talk more about how to improve your business through technical education, visit www.ardentraining.com or e-mail me at  robert.gepfert@ardentraining.com to schedule an initial meeting