You might recall that my last article highlighted what I believe is happening in the real estate market and the economy at large. It treated how these factors are affecting the outsourcing business. The biggest change I see coming is change itself, and over the next few months, I'm going to tackle various subjects that I feel will help the corporate real estate professional prepare for the change that I believe is upon us.

This month, I want to discuss training--something I consider the best and cheapest method of corporate survival--and sadly, the most ignored. If you're in CRE management, one issue I guarantee you're going to face this year is employee turnover. In a 2001 paper titled "The Retention Dilemma," the Hay Group, a global organizational consulting firm said, in effect, that employee satisfaction with career growth; training opportunities; and coaching/counseling made the biggest difference between workers who were loyal to the company and those who left. The study went on to say that as a rule, each manager or professional who leaves a company costs the equivalent of 18 months salary to replace.

Training on the other hand, is relatively cheap. For example, an annual $1,500 training budget for an employee making $50,000 per year is only 3% of that employee's salary. Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it?