Training programs are aimed at helping your employees learn specific skills and gain the knowledge necessary to improve their performance in their current roles.
This will help them know their roles better, save time and generally have a good feeling about the company.
Wondering what topics might be important to start with? Here are a few to consider:
- Employee Diversity Training
- Workplace Safety Training for Employees
- Workplace Sexual Harassment Training for Employees
- Emergency Preparedness & Fire Prevention Training
- Team Building Training for Employees – Workplace Team Building
- Office Ergonomics Training
- Hazard Communication Training – Right to Know
Let’s dig a little deeper and see the benefits you’ll reap for training your employees.
1. Attract High-Quality Employees
You can easily attract high calibre prospects by setting a benchmark as a business that values employee training and development. It is one of the most sought-after benefits by jobseekers. Other beneficial areas are:
- Great pay
- The job itself
- Creative benefits and rewards e.g. bonuses, health, and vacation
- Fun and safe working environment
- Cooperative and helpful colleagues
- The organization’s excellent reputation
- Understanding managers.
2. Increased Employee Morale and Job Satisfaction
You’ll be able to run your business more efficiently when you have a team that feels positively challenged and satisfied doing their job. They’ll have confidence while carrying out their duties thus boosting productivity.
The reward is that your competition can’t easily poach your best employees using training as an incentive.
American Psychology Association explains employee morale as “An unhappy workplace can increase depression and heart disease rates.”
3. Stay Ahead of Competitors
Let’s face it, industry trends and innovations are ever changing. However, with properly trained employees, you will be able to adapt better to these changes, therefore, giving your business the much desired competitive advantage. Ensure your staff are always improving and you’ll stay ahead of competitors.
4. Reduced Employee Turnover
The secret to retaining your employees is by extending continual corporate training to them. Let’s be honest, replacing employees is expensive. Therefore lower your turnover with sufficient employee training. The fact is that training costs are far much lower compared to replacing employees.
5. Keep up With Industry Changes
It’s a no-brainer that you need to constantly develop your business so that you don’t get left behind.
Through training, your staff will have up to date knowledge that will increase efficiency in processes thus resulting in financial gain.
Moreover, you’ll be able to easily comply with your industry rules and regulations.
6. Increased Capacity to Adopt New Technologies and Methods
One-off training can never be sufficient. Organize for customized staff training programs. Why? Because technology is ever-changing but with regular training, your staff can competently use all the latest technology to full potential. They’ll be in touch with all the latest technology developments and as a result increase innovation in strategies and products.
7. Be Able to See Weaknesses and Skills Gap
Proper training, when done regularly, will help you identify skill gaps that may be existing within your workforce and help increase efficiency. Here is an infographic from Cognology to further illustrate this point:
8. Maintain Knowledge and Skill
Naturally, skills learnt need regular practice and refresher courses to avoid forgetting them. Have a training scheme besides the one-off training for new starters. Improving the knowledge that your staff have acquired is beneficial as your business will have staff who bring more to the table.
9. Provide Internal Promotion Opportunities
The truth is hiring new staff is costly. A perfect option is to have your well trained regular staff fill in internal promotion positions.
Internal promotions are better because the employees are already familiar with the company’s culture and operations. Plus, you know and trust them better. They also have the right skills unlike new staff and will, therefore, hit the ground running, right from the start.
10. Enhanced Company Image
Now, of course you want to have the best employees, just like any other employer. And, with ongoing training, you’ll be able to retain your staff better. Moreover, you can easily attract new rising talents because most job seekers will highly esteem your company. According to important. Here is more:
Key Areas to Consider Before Hiring a Trainer:
Skills: Evaluate skills that your employees need to keep them engaged. They should be relevant to their current job and transferable.
Frequency: Make the training frequency balanced. Too much and the employees might struggle to keep up or even worse lose interest.
Delivery: Be it eLearning, one on one or group sessions, be sure to choose a method that best fits your business.
When to Train Your Employees
- When there is a need for improved performance. A good pointer is the performance appraisal.
- In an effort to make performance improvements and benchmark.
- As a professional development program
- To train about a specific program.
Skill-Based Topics to Train
- Communications: Today’s workforce is diverse in both languages and customs.
- Computer skills: necessary for performing daily administration tasks.
- Safety: A crucial training that includes practical advice on how to effectively deal with safety issues.
- Customer service: To best meet your customer’s needs in competitive global marketplace.
- Diversity: Equipped with the required skills to deal with people who have different perspectives and views thus valuing diversity
- Ethics: Workforce morals,values and social responsibility
- Human relations: Helps employees get along at their workplace.
- Sexual harassment: Description of the organization’s policies on matters relating to sexual harassment.
How to Manage Your Training
Now that you’ve seen the benefits of training your employees, it is your turn to go out and get yourself started.
Let’s take an example and say; a fire breaks out! Who will lead you to safety? Frankly, you need an emergency response and evacuation training.
But why? Well…
And you know what? The course includes :
- Identification & prevention of fire risks
- Confining workplace fires
- Handling emergency victims
- Organising evacuations and more
Actually, you can learn more about the emergency response and evacuation training.And even better, you can book an onsite survey that is flexible to your size, industry and location (training off and on-site)
And you’d definitely be right because you’ll keep your business safe, secure, and WHS compliant. So give it a go.
Photo courtesy of Flickr Images by woodleywonderworks