The company, which makes nails, hooks and other metal components, realized that as it grew, it needed a systematic way of doing things.

“We used to just chitchat with job applicants or judge them based on their resume, not knowing how to conduct a proper interview to find the right candidate for a job opening,” said general manager Frank Liu, whose father founded the company in 1974.

The business is part of a growing trend in Taiwan. Over the past two decades, not only multinationals, but local firms, including SMEs such as Liu’s, are placing more importance on training employees and managers on “soft skills,” according to industry experts.

Such skills include skills for communications, selling, negotiating, problem solving, motivating staff or helping them innovate, and hiring the right employees.

Despite the global economic downturn, industry experts believe that in the long-run, the demand for such training will increase in Taiwan, including among SMEs, which make up a majority of the companies here.

“There are so many SMEs, so competition is stiff. If they can’t increase their ability and the environment is changing very fast, their company’s talent won’t be able to keep up with that of other companies,” said Konrad Chen, executive director of the government-funded TAITRA International Trade Institute, which trains hundreds of students each year on doing international business.

SMEs encounter many of the same problems large companies face, and sometimes worse, experts said. They often suffer from unclear work instructions and duties and an inadequate people management system.

One challenge they face is finding a balance between utilizing long-time staff and hiring new staff, said Chen.

“Some old, traditional companies have very loyal employees, but when competition arises, they suffer. These companies think they should sideline the older people and get new people. They think they’d rather train new people, but new people are not as loyal,” said Chen. “Older employees won’t leave because the pay elsewhere is higher, but they are harder to train. They think: ‘We’ve been doing things this way for so long, what’s the problem?’”

The key is to clearly designate roles for each employee, assigning young recruits to certain tasks, while letting older employees handle other responsibilities, Chen said.

“Even if you manage only 200 people, you still need a system. The system is very important,” said Chen.

In recent years, SMEs are starting to recognize the importance of training even though their budget is smaller and they might not hold as many classes, industry sources said.

Thirty percent of the clients of local training firm, Pospo Digital Human Resources Services Inc. are SMEs, including software manufacturing, trading and distribution companies.

“The reason they need training is they think their employees need to develop skills such as making presentations, problem solving, decision-making, project management and people management,” said Pospo’s general manager Yvonne Fang.

The type of courses offered by private and government training agencies cover three main categories:

*Management - this includes training middle or senior managers to lead a team or company. This type of training includes how to set clear objectives, communicate with employees in a way that helps them meet objectives, and how to hire and retain staff.

*Sales and marketing - training staff on how to make a good first impression, as well as skills for effective selling, marketing, account management, negotiations and brand building.

*Personal growth - helping staff develop skills for making presentations, and skills for time and stress management

Also available are classes on problem solving, decision making,

planning, conflict management among workers, and even listening, which is especially important for managers and sales staff.

Courses can also be designed to meet a company’s specific needs.

The cost of training can vary widely, with short-term, one-day classes for several students taught by one trainer costing as little as NT$3,000 to NT$6,000 an hour.

Some firms charge NT$10,000 to NT$30,000 per student for a weekend session, depending on the facility and the food provided.

Per-class prices can also go up to NT$7,000 to NT$10,000 an hour or even NT$25,000 an hour.

The non-profit TAITRA offers long-term training, charging NT$200,000 per year per student, including room and board, as well as cheaper six-month classes for NT$115,000, or several thousand NT dollars for short, three-hour classes.

E-learning is also available for companies that cannot afford to send their employees to classes. Training companies put their course material into digital format for students to learn at their convenience.

Some local cities’ department of labor offer subsidies for training or free classes, although those are generally geared toward hard skills, such as for the tourism, fashion, and culinary industries, including how to greet guests in a foreign language, sew, serve customers and make snacks.

The Council of Labor’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training (BEVT) offers subsidies of 25 percent to 70 percent of the cost of training if companies come up with a training plan that the BEVT approves.

The benefits of training are hard to measure and statistics on its effects are not available. But companies that have undergone training said it has increased productivity and efficiency, and at the very least brought managers and employees together to discuss ways to improve company performance.

Liu’s hardware manufacturing company paid for training on sales, negotiations, purchases, team building, leadership, as well as how to interview job applicants and how to conduct staff performance reviews.

“In the past, managers didn’t know how to communicate what they wanted to employees and employees were not assessed. Now managers know how to communicate and it’s very clear why someone is promoted and others are not,” Liu said.

The company spends NT$500,000 to NT$1 million a year on training.

“The results are there, it’s just hard to verify that they are due to the courses. ... I notice some employees’ performance seem to be better,” said Liu.

One obvious change, he said, is that the people the company hires are more appropriate for the job.

“We learned to judge the applicants not just by what’s on paper. We learn to judge their personality. If we’re trying to hire a sales rep, for example, we ask them if they’ve traveled overseas. If they’ve never traveled and stay home all the time, then they’re definitely not extroverted and not suitable for the job,” said Liu.

In these tough economic times, Liu’s company has not cut its training budget.

“If we’re doing poorly financially, we might cut a little, but we won’t completely stop our training. Downturns last one or two years, so they shouldn’t affect a company’s long-term development,” said Liu.