Continually training staff and investing in their development is important for facilitating growth in a company and improving existing services, as well as increasing job satisfaction for employees.
This is true because it is not possible for a company to grow if the members of staff do not grow along with it. The importance of investing in staff in the form of training cannot be understated as it improves their self-esteem and makes them feel valued, in addition to increasing the value they provide to the business.
This article looks at some of the best tips that can be applied to make employee training more successful.
Employee Training Benefits
The benefits of actively investing in the training of employees are multitudinous for obvious reasons, but some of the main benefits business owners can expect to see include:
- A boost in productivity
- Improved quality of work
- Greater customer satisfaction
- Reduce errors and waste
- Improve health and safety
- Protect the business from lawsuits
- Improve employee satisfaction
- Increase job retention
- Prepare staff for business growth
- Gain competitive advantage in the marketplace
- Proves that the employer cares about staff
These are just some of the benefits, but it should be clear now why staff training is so important for the long-term health of a business and its staff.
What Does the Business Need?
A good tip to help maximise the effectiveness of staff training is to consider what it is the business needs and then tailor the training program around the objective of achieving this need.
By figuring out what skills will be required to address current or anticipated business needs and then designing a training program to equip the employees with these skills, the business owner can successfully further the business’s objectives while simultaneously investing in staff.
This will not only boost morale and improve job satisfaction but it will have the added benefit of aligning the company’s vision with that of the employee, facilitating a sense of dedication to the company because the success of the two is intertwined.
Always focus on how the training will be beneficial to the business. Don’t enrol staff on training programs for the sake of it, rather the focus should be on identifying what the business needs and then giving staff the required skills and experience to make this happen.
Use Employees as Trainers
Every business owner can easily identify their star employee, the one they wish all the rest would model themselves on. Well, implementing this tip could make that possible.
By using the most experienced and proficient employee or employees as trainers, businesses can save a lot of money and at the same time raise the other staff members to the level of the highest performer.
Training amongst peers could be incentivised monetarily by offering those who take the time to teach others a bonus, or even giving a bonus to everybody if collective goals are met.
In the military, squad leaders will punish the entire squad if one team member misses a target or does something wrong to incentivise everyone to operate on the same level and cooperate with each other.
In a similar way, businesses could use rewards instead of punishments to encourage this kind of cooperation and team-focused approach to job duties.
Promote Learning
One of the best ways to facilitate learning and the continuous development of staff, even beyond training sessions, is to promote an ethos around the office that is conducive to learning.
If employees are met with negative responses from management when they take some time out to read new information or bring themselves up to speed with new industry standards, then they are not going to learn effectively.
This could also cause some resentment amongst staff because it will give the impression that their development is viewed as a waste of time and pointless from a business perspective. It suggests that they have nothing to offer beyond their existing job and the manager is passively telling them to stay in their place.
By encouraging learning, business owners give purpose to their employees and a clear path of development that makes a career worthwhile. This tells them that they are valued and that their personal development contributes to the overall success of the business, improving job satisfaction and likely reducing staff turnover.
Employee Training Plan
The employee training plan that a business decides to use is going to be the determining factor in whether or not a decent ROI is achieved because ineffective training materials are counterproductive and a waste of money.
Poor quality materials will only serve to bore staff and could even end up having a detrimental effect on the business if the information contained is bad enough. In the same way, a bad trainer is not going to engage the students well enough to facilitate learning and if they transmit bad information, the business will eventually feel the effects.
Investing in high-quality training materials and a good trainer, on the other hand, will have an ongoing beneficial effect. The resources that have been purchased can be used as training materials for future employees and the value that the current employees extract from the material will be ongoing.
Measure Results
Though it can be very difficult to calculate the net profit generated as a direct result of training because there are so many untestable variables involved, a business owner can determine with a high degree of certainty whether the results of a program have been positive or not.
This would simply involve looking at the business prior to training and after training and taking note of the difference. Business owners would need to consult with their finance departments to properly calculate the ROI of training, which allows the business to properly prepare and budget for future training.
