What does training and development mean to your organization?
Training presents a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of employees who hold vital roles that contribute to organizational success. Many employers in the current climate resulting from the pandemic find training and development opportunities risky, expensive, and rare. Additionally, employees attending training sessions miss out on work time, which can lead to delayed completion of projects. Despite these potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the individual and their organization with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment. The return on investment from training and development of employees is really a no brainer.
Improved employee performance – the employee who receives the necessary training becomes more competent at their job. Training gives the employee a greater understanding of their responsibilities within a role, and in turn builds their confidence. This confidence enhances overall performance, which can only benefit the company. Employees who are competent and on top of changing industry standards help your company hold a position as a leader and strong competitor within the industry.
Improved employee satisfaction and morale – Investing in training shows employees they are valued. Training creates a supportive workplace. Employees gain access to knowledge they wouldn’t have otherwise known about or sought out themselves. Employees who feel appreciated and challenged through training opportunities often feel more satisfaction toward their jobs.
Addressing weaknesses – Most employees have some weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program allows them to sharpen those skills and bring employees that may be lagging up to speed, reducing weak links within the company. Providing the necessary training creates an overall knowledgeable staff with employees who can cover for one another as needed, and work on teams or work independently without constant supervision from others.
Consistency – A robust training and development program ensures that employees have a consistent experience and background knowledge. The consistency is particularly relevant for the company’s basic policies and procedures. All employees need to be aware of the expectations and procedures within the company. Increased efficiencies in processes results in financial gain for the company.
Increased productivity and adherence to quality standards – Productivity usually increases when a company implements training courses. Increased efficiency in processes will ensure project success which in turn will improve the company turnover and potential market share.
Increased innovation in new strategies and products – Ongoing training and upskilling of the workforce can encourage creativity. New ideas can be formed as a direct result of training and development.
Reduced employee turnover – staff are more likely to feel valued if they are invested in and therefore, less likely to change employers. Training and development are seen as an additional company benefit. Recruitment costs therefore go down due to staff retention.
Enhances company reputation and profile – Having a strong and successful training strategy helps to develop your employer brand and make your company a prime consideration for graduates and mid-career changes. Training also makes a company more attractive to potential new recruits who seek to improve their skills and the opportunities associated with those new skills.
Training can be of any kind relevant to the work or responsibilities of the individual, and can be delivered by any appropriate method.
Most business managers wouldn’t hire unqualified employees. But so many of them do employ under-qualified workers. Sometimes employees become under-qualified due to changing technology or the development of new methods. Don’t get me wrong; training does come at a cost. The two biggest resources used for job training are time and money. Some of the excuses not to train are:
“We are too busy to learn something new right now.”
“We just don’t have the money to pay for training.”
Training employees costs time, money, and materials. Often, third parties are needed to conduct job training. Not only will there be missed time and unbillable hours, but there will also be additional costs. Another reason businesses often neglect to train employees is because of past training experiences. Sometimes the training was done poorly, or the topics just didn’t help. That could happen for several reasons. Failed training comes at a high cost, and businesses often don’t want to take that risk.
However, not training your employees also comes at a cost.
Here Are 6 Truths That Underscore The Importance of Training
1. Untrained Employees = Unhappy Employees
Employees who feel inadequate, underachieving, or unsupported are unhappy. They aren’t satisfied in their work, which will cause them to underperform, make mistakes, and not care about their work product. That costs the business in lost time and money.
2. Untrained Workers Have a Low Production Value
The quality of their work is lower and of less value. The quality in performance is lower than it could (or should) be.
3. Untrained Workers Are Inefficient
More time (and therefore money) and effort is spent when employees aren’t fully or properly trained to perform their tasks or to fulfill their responsibilities. It takes them longer to do the work.
4. Lost Time/Money Due to Mistakes
When an untrained worker makes a mistake, the time and materials used are lost. The work then has to be done again. Or worse, the inadequate product was delivered to the client.
5. An Increase in Miscellaneous Expenses
These are more difficult to track or attribute to untrained workers, but they are there. Creating a CAD drawing incorrectly means reprinting the file. That means it takes more time to fix the mistake, more materials cost in paper and ink, and more time rechecking the work. If it were done correctly the first time, these costs wouldn’t be there.
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6. Insufficient Staff Training Means Lost Customers
Untrained employees can cause many of the mistakes listed above, and those mistakes and inefficiencies can cause your business to lose customers. That is the worst possible scenario, but it can happen.
Training programs and costs have an easily measured up-front cost of time and money. Those line items are difficult to handle on a tight budget. However, added costs of poorly trained staff shows the importance of training employees. These costs do not come in the form of line items, so they are often ignored or unseen.
Having a trained workforce means your workers are learning new skills that can improve production, cut time spent in creation of your product (or service), reduce production costs, reduce mistakes, build confidence in your workforce, and create a better working environment. An investment in your employees’ skill sets is an investment in your company. When everyone gets better, everyone gets better.
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