Many of you have heard or experienced that when organizations want to trim back budgets by making cuts, employee training and development has historically been one of the first corporate line items to go. “Let’s forego the leadership training—they’ll figure it out—managing people isn’t rocket science.” Sound familiar? Well, they’re right…it isn’t rocket science, it’s PEOPLE science.

What is people science? People science is the art of connecting people with their work to ultimately achieve workplace success. Think of it as Purple Ink’s JoyPowered® concept—a people-centric approach to greater employee engagement. A focus on what people need to perform their jobs, find joy in what they do, grow into new or expanded roles, etc., all while helping the organization achieve its goals better than and more effectively than the rest. And bingo! There it is…people science. It’s about developing people while positively impacting the bottom line.

But let’s back up. We started off by talking about training and development, and how it is first to get cut when cost savings is needed. That makes a lot of sense, right? Let’s cut programs that help us develop employee competencies and upskill the individuals that are responsible for doing the work, managing our workforce, hiring new staff, setting goals, etc. Nooooo! It is counterproductive. It is when times are challenging that we need to invest in, develop, and grow our people. We need to help them think critically and creatively solve problems, create innovative workforce strategies, and become better leaders of people AND processes. Employee training and development is not a luxury item we can do without, but rather a necessity to ensure the workforce’s success. And we know that when people are not developed appropriately, we set up our organizations to fail.

Thankfully, we at Purple Ink know the importance of employee training and development and have created a series of trainings to simplify your ability to get employees the development they need. The first series, Management Essentials, launches March 2022 and will be followed by three other series: Women in Leadership; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; and JoyPowered® Leadership! These series were designed to focus on key learnings and skills that encourage growth. Click here to learn more about these series.

Remember, your people are your business—investing in them means investing in your future.