Staff training needs development

By TOM CLARKE

New Zealand businesses are not investing enough money in their greatest resource - their people, says Noelene Buckland, of the Institute of Management.

Ms Buckland has become the general manager of the Auckland division's new business school.

"I think it's recognised that our education system is not producing enough graduates, especially in the technical and science fields," she says. "We're not innovative or creative enough and most of that comes back to education and training."

Training should be part of the daily life of corporates and something they are thinking about all the time, she says. If it is only addressed when there is suddenly a dramatic and obvious need for it, it is probably too late by that time.

"Businesses need to avoid the short-term, quick-fix approach to training," she says.

"New Zealand doesn't have a good record of training. If our businesses want to achieve excellence and be internationally competitive, they must train their staff. That's their greatest resource."

Ms Buckland says Britain proved the benefit of staff training, where - despite the reforms of the Thatcher Government - businesses were still not doing well.

"A good hard look" produced the answer: British businesses were not training their staff to the same extent as in Europe.

Britain then came up with a programme to encourage training, called Investors in People, which is available in this country through Telarc. A similar guide to training, based on an American programme, has been developed by the New Zealand Quality Foundation.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Management in Auckland has gone through a major restructuring, part of which has involved bundling its existing training and development programmes within the new business school. Ms Buckland says this is intended to provide a better focus to the institute's training and development activities, particularly for its public programmes.

She replaces Andrew Brownley who was business development manager and who has moved to Sydney.

As part of the revamp, the institute's general manager, Ron Eddy, has now become chief executive.

The institute is one of New Zealand's largest training providers. It runs some 200 courses a year as part of its public programme and provides more than 1000 corporate clients with in-company training and support.

Ms Buckland is responsible for these public and in-house programmes and for developing the school's business consulting and support services.

The school will help clients undertake an organisational and training needs analysis and then tailor training programmes to fit their requirements.

Ms Buckland was with the Franklin District Council in a number of positions, including deputy chief executive, change manager, and manager of community services and promotion. She has also worked for the Taumarunui County Council and the Taumarunui Hospital Board.

She served as a councillor on the Taumarunui County Council and on the Tongariro United Council, and was an unsuccessful candidate in last year's general election.

She is a graduate of the Kellogg New Zealand rural leadership programme at Lincoln University and has a postgraduate diploma in management from Auckland University.