Make the Most of a Limited Training Budget.

Roxanne Emmerich remembers a panel discussion at a bankers' convention in which one panelist said he doesn't train his people for fear they might then leave.

Emmerich, who heads a training organization called The Emmerich Group Inc., Minneapolis, says she has a scarier thought than that: What if they stay?

If they leave, they're someone else's problem. If they stay, that failure to train them may come back to haunt the bank. Research sponsored by the American Society for Training and Development has demonstrated, she says, that training brings a higher return on investment than equipment, buildings or technology.

But not just any training. Because training is an investment, she says, you should use "the least-cost method of training that gets the best results."

"Often, managers choose training methods because they are 'hip' or new and later find that the results were less than spectacular," Emmerich says.

Here are Emmerich's suggestions for getting the most out of your training budget:

* Know the problem before seeking the solution. Is it primarily a skills problem or an attitude problem? Most training emphasizes one or the other. Alter your training approach accordingly.

* Use the right training approach for the probjem. Skills can be learned through books, CD-ROM or other individual approaches. Attitude problems are treated more successfully through group training sessions, where peer pressure can be applied.

* Train 'em early. New employees will be harder to train after several weeks on the job, and untrained newcomers may also have a bad effect on colleagues with longer tenure.

* Measure and celebrate. Require a commitment from your trainees and measure their performance after they're trained.

* Offer certification. It's a way of recognizing their achievement--especially important for younger employees.

"Today's employees demand to be trained," says Emmerich. "You need to demand results from training. Let (employees) know you'll provide the training, and you're expecting great things and will measure the results."