Commercial Integrator October 2021 - 4

EDITOR'S NOTE
The Employer's
Role in Professional
Development
I'VE ALWAYS CONSIDERED myself a lifelong
learner. My grandmother, at 90 years old
and still not fully retired from a career of
accounting, said, " If you don't use, it you
lose it, and that's why I always carry a book
with me wherever I go. " It's the truth - a brain
unstimulated by some form of education will
inevitably slow down.
As humans we yearn to learn. The earliest
societies sprung forward generally because
intelligent people invented disruptive
technology (the wheel,
aqueducts, farming equipment,
etc.). They did so through
experimentation, and lessons
learned were passed on to the
next generation. That brought us
from pyramids to spaceships and
it hasn't slowed down.
In the integration industry,
In the
integration
industry,
education is
education is available at every
corner. Give a call to any manufacturer
you work with, and I promise they'll
off er some form of training on installation
of their products. Industry associations like
AVIXA and NSCA are constantly providing
new lectures and material to help integrators
better understand technology and their role in
technology implementation. As AV and IT continue
to converge, organizations like CompTIA
provide understanding of networking, cybersecurity,
and more that can take AV integrators
to another level in their careers.
There are many barriers to education,
however. Employees will say that they don't
have the time to devote outside of their general
work duties. They won't have the funds
to pay for a master's degree or a new certification
that is slightly outside of their scope
of work. They won't have the knowledge of
what's available to even begin navigating
the road of professional development and
further education.
That's where business owners should step
in. There is fear here, too. Employers are
worried that they'll invest time and money into
an employee only to see them jump ship to
4
Commercial Integrator OCTOBER 2021
available - and
essential - at
every corner.
a competitor and use all those resources the
fi rm paid for to make money for someone else.
They worry that as soon as those certifi cations
and trainings are added to an employee's
LinkedIn page, the next fi rm is going to scoop
them right up.
There are always reasons not to do something,
and fear is a powerful deterrent to
betterment. My advice to both employees
and employers is to look past that fear to the
bigger picture.
Employees - it is a cost investment
to get further education.
It's also an opportunity to justify
a raise or a promotion. It's a
time commitment for sure, but it
will also streamline your abilities
and allow you fewer mistakes
on the job site, saving time in
the long run.
Employers - there is absolutely
the chance that some
employees you invest in for education then
move on to a competitor. That isn't a good
enough excuse to forgo developing the talent
at your company. Even if half of the employees
you provide training to eventually leave, half
will go on to drive better installations, make
less mistakes, improve the bottom line, and,
hopefully, go on to leadership positions within
the company.
There is little formal training for AV integration.
It's not a subject one can major in at a
typical university. There are few if any trade
schools that off er AV integration as a focus.
It's up to business owners to ensure that
employees are getting the education they
need to grow in their career so that the entire
industry benefi ts.
For more information on training opportunities,
check out The AV Integrator's Guide to
Certifi cation and Training at commercialintegrator.com.
Jonathan
Blackwood, Editorial Director
jonathan.blackwood@emeraldx.com
@BlackwoodTweets
Emerald X, LLC.
100 Broadway, 14th Floor
New York, New York 10005
800-440-2139
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Commercial Integrator October 2021

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