By: Appetite13 Feb 12, 01:48 PM

It’s that time of year, when the shops are full of chocolates packaged as red heart, balloons shaped like hearts and stuffed animals holding hearts. Yes tomorrow is February the 14^thand Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day receives mixed reviews. Many people love (he he) Valentine’s Day while the same amount of people see it as a way for Hallmark to make lots of money and a day of disappointment.  I remember working in an office where there was a constant stream of floral arrangements arriving, from the single red rose to the full works, with teddy bears, chocolates, and roses galore. 

It appeared from the response of the women receiving the gift and the position it had on their desk, pride of place or shoved off to the side, that the size of the arrangement was an indicator of how much their partners had spent and therefore, thought of them.  It raises the question:

If you really love someone, should you wait until Valentine’s Day to show them that you love them?

The same is true of the people you employ.  Training shouldn’t be to mark one specific event but continuously shown to demonstrate commitment and belief in your teams and how much you think of them.  Individuals need ongoing training to help them become more effective and take on bigger and more significant challenges.  More than this they need help learning new skills as the nature of their work – and of your organisation – changes. Too often, companies limit training and development to new hires and to people moving into new roles. This is a mistake, because ongoing training helps people adjust to changing job requirements. It also creates a pool of qualified and available people, who are ready to step into new roles as your organization needs them. This process helps you develop a more effective, efficient, productive, and motivated workforce. Done properly, this will ensure that you achieve your objectives and improve your competitive position.

Every organisation has to sell the benefits of remaining in that organisation to our employees to motivate and engage. So remember, if all that hard work in investing in recruitment and bringing new people on board is going to pay off, your plan has to include a good training strategy too otherwise all that hard work, time and resources will go to waste.

Valentine ’s Day like training shouldn’t be celebrated just one day a year. So rather than acknowledging your love on a random day that Hallmark has chosen with millions of other couples, opt to love and appreciate your staff every day.