Invest In Your People
By Mike Speidel

Every fiscal year, there comes a time when budgets are being prepared for the following year. Maybe you're familiar with what that sounds like when that time comes: "Tell me what you need, and we'll stick it in the budget."

You take your lucky pen and jot down a paint truck at the top of your wish list, the same waterblaster you've included during this exercise for the last several years, and the additional people you need just to handle your current workload.

Before running it up the ladder, you close your eyes and say a little prayer to the paint gods that goes like - If this somehow gets approved, you promise to be a better painter, blah blah blah, amen.

In a few weeks you find out that your requests were unceremoniously kicked out of the budget because some other department needs the funds more than you do and you need to find a way to do more with less. It's frustrating, to say the least.

Does Airfield Marking Training make it in your budget every year?

It should for many reasons, not the least of which being you can't do more with less without it. Training is an easy sell; widely accepted by the aviation industry and bean counters everywhere. It's is a relatively cheap way to invest in your people to optimize their skills and productivity; virtually a no-brainer.

If you don't get anything into the budget except for training, your team will do more with the same. More equipment, more full time staff, and more expectations without the right fundamental knowledge typically leads to doing less with more.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of investing in your people through training is that they will appreciate it. Generally, when you spend resources to improve an individual's skill set, they respond favorably with the feeling of increased value and self-worth, or morale. To quote Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines, "Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't want to". Check out how to best train your team.

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