Is training and development on your budgeting radar?

Whilst most treasuries will be thinking about their strategic priorities for 2018, some may not be considering how their team’s performance will impact their business’ ability to meet those priorities.

For many managers, training and development happens when you’ve got a problem in your team so it can tend to be quite reactive in nature. Taking a more strategic approach to the planning of any training and development activities can reap so many benefits.

Some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you know what your organisation’s overall strategic objectives are for 2018?
• Have you started planning how your treasury priorities fit the organisational strategy for the coming year?
• What are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
• How does your team enable you to achieve those KPIs?
• Do you have a written plan showing what skills your team needs to have to make your treasury successful?
• How do you measure the competence of your team?
• What happens if you don’t have the right skills mix in your team to achieve your goals?
• How do you plan for retaining your talented colleagues or replacing those who move on?

Failing to plan is planning to fail

Yes, we’ve all heard this a thousand times before but of course it’s true. And it’s no different when it comes to planning training and development.

Organisations that get the best return on investment for their training budgets plan thoroughly and demonstrate an absolute link between the training activities undertaken and their organisation’s strategy. So how do they do this?

1. Set the objectives, KPIs and performance expectations of your team which are linked to your overall strategic direction
2. Understand how each team member plays their role in achieving these objectives
3. Set competency and performance standards for all your team members
4. Measure your team regularly against these standards so you can identify:
   
   • Your star performers who can help develop others
   • Those colleagues who need support to develop their skills
   • Which skills to develop that will have the most impact on performance
   • Once you know these things you can start to make a training plan.

Wondering what do next?

If you would like help building that all-important training plan for your treasury team, why not leave some of the hard work to the ACT? Our learning and development experts can provide a free consultation visit to help you scope your needs against business objectives and provide you with a complimentary training plan for your team. To book your appointment, contact clientsolutions@treasurers.org or call 0207 847 2540