The Daily Mail recently commented on the large amount of money spent by MPs on training their staff to communicate more effectively and has suggested that this is a waste of British taxpayers’ money and a poor use of government officials’ time. Polemic headlines such as these obviously grab the reader’s attention and sell newspapers but let’s look at this in more detail.

© istockphoto.com/ Sjlocke

In the current economic climate the government clearly needs more than ever to scrutinise very carefully how public money is spent and ensure excellent return on investment.

However, the case is strong for government officials to receive training to help them to carry out their roles more effectively and communicate appropriately with a diverse range of stakeholders from the general public to journalists and broadcasters to the business community. These officials support the MPs whom we have elected to represent us and run the country on our behalf. Why would we deny them the necessary skills to do this to the best of their abilities? Most of us working in the corporate sector would expect some investment in our learning and development to enable us to do our job as well as we can and should this not be the same for government officials? Should public sector workers be treated differently in these times of austerity and not receive any investment in their professional development? In these difficult economic times, when fewer staff mean that communication needs to be even more efficient and to the point, the need for well-trained public sector employees is more than justified.

MPs’ staff may have been hired for their research and analytical skills rather than their abilities to communicate and so it is not unreasonable for them to expect some support when asked to deliver tough messages to the media or to represent their MP at meetings with senior stakeholders. They will now undoubtedly be asked for the first time to negotiate firmly with other suppliers to reduce government spend elsewhere.

This type of business focused communication skills training programmes may be more expensive than a course down at the local college but will be much more targeted to professional needs and more likely to create greater impact for the individuals who attend. The key is to select the appropriate individuals for the appropriate training course rather than adopting a ‘sheep dip’ approach putting large numbers through training for the sake of training. Also important is to ensure that training programmes such as Influencing and Negotiating Skills or Communicating with Impact develop participants’ strategies to continue to develop their communication skills and techniques once they have completed the training.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011