Personal development is not an option

Why is training and personal development so often neglected at work? Everyone agrees it's a 'good thing', yet it's very often the last thing that gets done.

Computer programmers expect training and education to be part of their employment package. In all probability, you will not be able to hire a good programmer unless they can see that you have sound plans for their continued professional development.

I have often been asked to justify this 'extra' expenditure on training. It's not hard:

- they won't join without it
- they will stay longer and be more useful with it
- their world keeps changing, and they need to keep up to date
- they will tell a good story about you to their peers
- they are going to leave you anyway at some point, and there's a very good chance you will come across them again, maybe even as a client or prospect.

So which bit of this doesn't apply to your entire organisation?

Well, maybe the first bit's different. Good people may readily join you without a commitment to their continuing personal or professional development.

All the rest is the same though. And one day soon, you're going to find that the very best candidates will have learned from the programmers, that personal development is not an option, it's a requirement.