TOEFL iBT Independent Writing, Is the most important thing business corporations should invest in the education and training of their employees?

Writing Topic

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. The most important thing business corporations should invest in is the education and training of their employees.

 

☆Let’s Think

♦The goal of the corporation is to make profits.

This writing topic says “the most important thing business corporations should invest in.”

As everyone knows, the most important thing, or goal, of business corporations is to make profits. The contracts they make with shareholders clearly define that they work in order to increase capital which their shareholders have invested their money in. Then this writing topic means the most important thing for business corporations to make profits is the education and training of their employees.

 

♦Investment is spending resources in something for future returns.

What do you think of when you hear the word investment? I guess you think of people who have a lot of extra money paying some of it to buy stocks, which end up increasing capitals of corporations. If companies they have paid for do well, they gain returns (dividends). We often use the word investment figuratively as in “You should invest your time and energy in many things as well as studying hard so that you can have wider choices when you try to find a job.” Thus, investment is spending money, time, energy, and other resources for future returns.

 

♦Cost-cutting is not an investment and doesn’t seem to be important, at least in the long run.

For short-term profits, businesses often cut cost. Unlike investment, cost-cutting is reducing the amount of money spent in business. Given what corporations are doing to survive these days, it seems that cost-cutting is more important than education of employees for them. Not only do they try to reduce waste but also they often dismiss veteran workers for profits. Many companies move their factories to developing countries where they can hire people at low wages. But is cost-cutting really important in business? It saves you money, but it cannot increase your real income. Cheap labor, labor without skills and experience, cannot make good products. Also, consumers are gradually becoming aware now that cheap goods come from sweatshops, factories where people work under terrible work conditions for very low wages－remember the collapse of a factory complex that killed more than 800 people in Bangladesh. Many shoppers today now refrain from buying extremely cheap products.

 

♦A business can invest its resources in place, facility, material, advertisement and many other things than personnel.

For what does a business spend money on for future returns? For example, if you start an ice cream shop, you need a place, some equipment, materials, people who make and sell ice cream, advertisements and so on. In which of them would you invest most? Is educating employees more important than renting a good-looking building, buying efficient machines, buying better ingredients, or using a famous advertising company?

 

♦Well informed employees will contribute to making profits.

What happens if you make more efforts in educating and training employees? Here are some results you can expect.

1.    They will work more efficiently (more work in less time with fewer mistakes)

2.    They will enjoy work more and productivity will increase.

3.    They will educate themselves and each other (less training costs in the future)

4.    They will be loyal to the company (lower turnover rates).

5.    They will contribute to evolving the company especially when it needs to change.

6.    They will improve the company image (good PR).

 

If you spend some extra time and money to show your employees how the business works, they will have more interest in selling the product. If you show them how to clean quickly and neatly, they will practice it. If you share your ideas about new ice cream flavor, they can come up with better ones. If you show them how much you love your business and how important they are for you and your business, they will love you and your business and work harder. It seems that employee education pays well in the long run. If a business wants to establish itself, its personnel is the most important thing to invest in. A machine won’t change but a person will.

 

♦People will not waste the time and money for training as long as they are treated properly.

Some might say that many people work for money and educating them does nothing to improve their performance. Of course if employees are not paid well and treated like slaves or some parts of factory equipment, they won’t work well. They are unhappy about their life. But if they are paid enough to lead a decent life as a human being, they will be happy to conform to company policy. Not so many people are too lazy to be inspired to improve themselves, nor are they so greedy to be unsatisfied until they can live like a king.

 

♦Other investments have both benefits and risks.

What about other things to invest in?

Place:

Pros: Customers may increase.

Cons: High rent will be a burden if the business goes down.

 

Equipment and materials:

Pros: You can make better products and they can sell well.

Cons: Better equipment and materials cost more and your products will be more expensive. Also, you might have to pay the debt you have borrowed from the bank for the investment.

 

Advertisement:

Pros: You can make your company known to more people. You might also get consumers to have better image of the company and the products

Cons: Consumers know better than to decide to buy something based only on the information they get through ads.