IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done by Bill Holtsnider, Brian D. Jaffe

factor, but often the value of taking a training class is unclear. If that is the case, you should use some of the other criteria listed in this section to help you decide whether or not to agree to have an employee take a training class.
    Scheduling Demands
    This is probably the most difficult issue to deal with. Many of your own staff will find the issue difficult, rightly recognizing that a week away from the office means a week of catching up when they get back. Who will cover for them? If they are overburdened right now (as many IT people are), how are they ever going to make up for a lost week’s worth of work? The answer is pretty simple: Evaluate the short-term costs versus the long-term gains. See the previously mentioned three items; if the direct costs aren’t overwhelming, if the employee (and your department) needs the training, and if their morale will be improved, go for it—and have them go for it.
    Remember that the traditional five-day instructor-led classes are just one option. Making use of shorter (and more content-targeted) classes, as well as online instruction (either interactive, or view-only) have proven to be very popular, effective, and cost efficient.
    Employee Morale
    Many employees view training as a reward. It provides them with concrete, resume-enhancing skills, sometimes lets them “get out of the house” by traveling to a warm spot in midwinter, and often allows them to interact with professionals with the same interests and questions.
    In addition, sending a staff member to a trade show or training course can be an excellent way to motivate employees. Both you and your employees need to aggressively monitor your skill sets to make sure they are current and useful.
    Also be aware that sending one person to training can occasionally cause a second person to feel resentment. One of the challenges any manager faces is how to juggle multiple responsibilities, such as how to manage multiple people. Make sure you spread the “wealth” around so that feelings like these have no basis in fact.
    How Do You Know When Your Employees Need Training?
    There are three principal ways to identify when an employee needs training.
1. They tell you. IT people are deluged by training class offers and by situations where they are aware of their technical shortcomings in one area or another. Asking the boss for a class or two is a common request. (Asking for a weeklong class on a cruise ship in the Bahamas is less common, but not unheard of.) You should consider an employee’s request for training as a positive indication that they are interested in learning and doing more for the company. (It could also be an indication that they like being out of the office or are looking to beef up their resume.) In addition, look at your employee’s goals. Are they asking for the training to meet the performance goals and development plan you both set together?
2. Your customers tell you. The IT department’s customers can be one of a variety of groups: they can certainly be outside customers, but they can also be (sometimes exclusively) internal customers. In either case, if you solicit feedback from your customers about what their IT needs are, you may hear about specific technical services that your department can’t provide without either (1) getting more training for current employees or (2) hiring someone else to do the job.
3. You find out on your own because you are a proactive manager. Learn to address training needs before they become problems. If you do this, you’ll save yourself tremendous time, money, and effort over the long term. You’ll anticipate your department’s needs for Ruby on Rails developers and start running the ads months in advance, knowing that particular talent is hard to find. You’ll budget for a new Help Desk support analyst in advance, before the seasonal sales cycle kicks in and all the calls come in. And you’ll send your people for training in Windows network administration,