Some businesses don’t feel compelled to offer their employees professional training — or worse, they fear it.

Employers fail to train their workers for a variety of reasons. In some cases they assume employees are seeking education on their own time. In other cases they assume no training is necessary if no one is asking for it. Yet another misconception suggests that professional development will boost your employees’ resumes and lead to rival companies snatching them up.

DTS’ Edward Tuorinsky

DTS managing principal Edward Tuorinsky will lead a discussion about professional development at the upcoming Channel Partners Evolution. Titled “Training: The Continuous Need for Professional Development,” it’s part of the Careers track presented with Channel NX2Z, and sponsored by Nextiva. Tuorinsky will aim to dispel myths and offer strategies for management.

DTS provides consulting and IT services to public and private sector organizations. Tuorinsky is a former U.S. Army officer who has worked in government consulting, professional services and IT services. The National Veteran Small Business Coalition named Tuorinsky to its national board of directors last year. He spoke about staff development at this year’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

We asked Tuorinsky to share a preview of his upcoming talk. We’ve edited the transcript for clarity.

Channel Futures: In your experience, do companies tend to assume their employees will seek out training on their own? Is this assumption based in fact?

Edward Tuorinsky: It’s easy to fall into the mind trap that everything is fine unless someone complains. But when it comes to retention of critical talent, the do-it-yourself approach to training is seriously flawed.

If you don’t prioritize training for your teams – the budget, the time and the resources they need to keep up with industry news and technology that is always changing – then your people won’t be prepared to do their jobs. They won’t feel valued. And most critically, they’ll find another employer who takes better care of them.

CF: What do you say to companies that think in-house training will decrease employee retention?

ET: You can’t ask people to go the front lines for you and win without the most advanced tools and knowledge available.

We’re experiencing limited talent pools in many industries. If you’re not Google, you need to be thinking about how you can make your company more attractive to talent. It’s not just about the compensation — it’s also about the work, the environment, being in on the action. You want to be a place where people are valued for their knowledge.

CF: What are a few key elements companies must consider/implement when creating a professional development program?

ET: A well-structured training plan pays dividends in operations, innovation and culture, pushing you in front of your competition — it’s truly a business imperative.

Professional development and training programs that are effective have support and structure at every level. They make training programs a priority in strategic planning, budgets, hiring and culture.

From there, we recommend a tailored approach — not everyone in your division has the same job requirements or the same knowledge base, so why conduct those large group training sessions? It might be a good way to introduce a new phone system but it’s not the way to develop talent into superstars.

CF: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

ET: I’ll be talking about training, but at the heart of things I’m also talking about fundamentally changing our organizations.

You don’t have to fight for training dollars in an organization that is hungry for innovation, knowledge, or one that leverages technology. They understand the connection and will see the returns. Organizations that use talent to propel themselves forward are always looking for ways to improve and develop their knowledge. That’s the new blueprint for success.