Sad but true, training — and travel for training — are often the first things axed when the institution’s leadership comes looking for low-hanging budget savings.

But here is where you earn your pay: you have to fight to keep training alive.

Because without it, you’re simply biding time until the talent you want to keep has walked out the door. Because the talent that can, will.

Training is actually your best tool for keeping employees engaged and excited. It allows them to envision where they will be a few steps down the road, because they can see themselves becoming more valuable to their institution.

Of course, the more skills your talent acquires on the job, the easier to walk out the door for greener pastures. But training also promotes trust because it says that you value that person’s future, are interested in them as individuals with ambitions and goals, and are tangibly invested in seeing them achieve their goals.

Putting off training and travel for training for anything other than “we can’t pay the bills” is foolhardy; it virtually guarantees apathy and distrust in anything else you do to try and rally the troops.

But the most obvious benefit to a strong and dedicated commitment to training is that it is often the only avenue remaining to budget-constrained organizations to obtain new skills and master emerging technologies.

What are your strategies for professional development for your staff?

Go, and be you.