It's an oft-cited truism that the cheapest, most effective and most reliable way to gain a brand spanking new employee, complete with a sparkling suite of professional skills, is not to hire someone new but to invest in training an existing employee, whose potential is perhaps being underused.

Meanwhile, from the point of view of the employee, receiving professional training adds considerably to the value they can gain in their job - enhancing their career prospects, adding to their skills, and helping them to perform better in their job, while opening the door to new tasks and roles.

Training is the ideal way to add specific business skills to one’s skill-set - those which might not have been acquired at university, or mastered in the normal run of things in a job - such as writing professional letters, conducting meetings, handling difficult customers or getting familiar with the ins-and-outs of Excel spreadsheets. This should be particularly appealing to the sizeable minority of employers who are sometimes heard to complain about the lack of specific business skills of junior professionals.

A recent PwC survey found that 58% of employers believe training and development is the key to unlocking their workforce's potential. And with the respondents - all middle market CEOs or Finance Directors - reporting that they see their people as one of the two main contributors to strategic competitiveness, it’s clear how important the issue is.

These sentiments were echoed by Gianni Ciserani, MD of Procter & Gamble in the UK and Ireland, in his recent speech at the 2006 Institute of Directors Annual Convention in London. He affirmed, "in the long term, the organisation that wins is not necessarily the one with more money, or more people, or even more brands. I believe that the one who wins is the one with more people talent". His policy is to “identify the best people, train them and stretch them to reach their full potential."

He underlined that training and development, as a strategic matter, should have the full involvement and buy-in of senior management, rather than HR departments taking overall responsibility. He added, “I personally find this, one of the most satisfying parts of my leadership role. It is so great to see my team grow, and know I have helped them. Recruitment and training are not just an HR responsibility. They are our responsibility. Senior management is in charge of talent, and I passionately believe we should not delegate this downward.”

At present however, as PwC discovered in its survey, actions lag a little behind words - almost half of their respondents (49%) believed that their line managers do not spend enough time helping to train their people. Additionally, senior management is not buying in to the extent prescribed by Ciserani - only 5% of CEOs and FDs see training as the primary role for their HR function.

Michael Rendell, lead partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Human Resources practice, said, “a properly structured HR function has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the business. However, it requires strong clarity of roles and responsibilities, as well as Board Room influence, if people are to be taken seriously as part of the business growth plans.”