Employee development is a massive part of being a manager or running your own business. If you employ staff, they are a vital part of your company and its success. You need a training plan in place as soon as you start hiring. A way to ensure that your staff are able to perform their duties efficiently and that they have sufficient knowledge of health and safety, hygiene and any other legal requirements that your business needs to meet. They must be legally compliment and able to do their jobs well and to ensure this is your responsibility.
But, only a basic level of training is usually required to meet these standards. You could spend an afternoon working with a new member of staff to ensure they know what they are doing, and then leave them to it. You don’t ever need to offer that member of staff further training and development, which is often expensive and time-consuming.
Yet many of us do. We take the time to develop our staff. To sit down with them to appraise their current performance and find ways to help them to improve. We ask about their plans for the future and help them find ways to meet their goals. We set them targets and build training plans. You might even have a whole department committed to staff training and development or send your team off-site to take training courses and gain extra knowledge.
But, why? This additional development can be costly, it takes time out of your day, and means your staff are available to work less. Extra training can also mean that our current systems have to be changed, as we learn new ways to do things. Sometimes, it means that our best staff leave us. They learn so much that we can no longer offer them the challenges and promotions that they need to keep them happy. They get to a point where it’s time to move on to bigger and better things, or even start up on their own, in competition. So, with all of these negatives, why bother with further development? Why not just offer a basic training course to the commencement of employment and then leave it at that?
To Keep Everyone Safe
One of the primary reasons to invest in some level of training is safety. If your staff use machinery or technology, they should be adequately trained on what to do. Any staff that works with the public should know what to do in the event of an accident or injury. Your team should be offered a cpr renewal regularly so that they have the basic health and safety and first aid training needed to look after themselves, each other and anyone else that they come into contact with.
Poorly trained members of staff are one of the leading causes of workplace accidents and injuries, as well as damage to expensive equipment and machinery. If you want your team to remain safe and protected, and your equipment to last, then it’s essential that your staff are well trained.
To Motivate Your Team
Offering training and development in the workplaces gives your staff something to work towards. This can help to keep them motivated. If they think that there will be opportunities to learn, they’ll work hard. It can also help to improve office morale. They’ll respect you as a manager or business owner. They’ll give you more of their focus and commitment because they know that you are invested in them and their development. They’ll work hard for you, be motivated to achieve more and give you all of their loyalty.
To Learn More Yourself
Running a business is tough. Especially if you are small and can’t afford to hire other people to take over the running of departments like marketing or HR. You have to know it all. You need to be the ideas man, the digital marketing expert, the coach, the HR department, the tech team and the person that develops new ideas and pushes the business forward. You are in charge of recruitment and accounting, as well as meeting clients and pitching for work. You are everything to everyone. It’s hard. You’re always busy. But, you still need to make time to learn.
There’re always new developments in any industry, and courses on offer to gain new knowledge. As much as you’d love to go on them all, and it would certainly benefit your business if you did, you are unlikely to have the time. So, instead, send someone else. Send team members on courses, and they’ll come back with the knowledge to share. They can help you and teach the rest of the team too.
To Offer New Opportunities
Well trained staff will help your company to grow. As you grow, you might find that you are in a position to take on staff to fill specific positions. Giving you more time to focus on expansion You might suddenly find that you can hire a marketing team. And, because your staff is so well developed, you might already have someone on board to fill the role.
To Keep Staff Interested and Engaged
Employees get bored. As much as they love a job in the beginning, when the exiting early days where there are challenges to tackle, and there’s plenty to learn, come to an end, they can get bored. They can feel like every day is the same. Like they are just going through the motions. This can lead to a lack of drive and interest. The quality of their work can start to slip, and you can find that you suddenly have to chat with your staff about their commitment and performance.
Offering extra training can keep them interested and engaged. They can find new enjoyment and challenges in a job that they’ve been doing for a long time. They have more to offer and more to think about. They’ll be proud of where they work. They’ll be engaged with work and enjoy coming in.
To Attract the Best Employees
Improving your current staff is a fantastic way to promote from within. It keeps them engaged and interested, motivates them to do more and helps you to grow your business. But, that isn’t all.
Being the kind of company that takes the time to develop their staff, or invests money in in-depth training programs, helps you to attract the very best team in the first place. When you are recruiting, staff will want to work for you because they know that it’s a position that will afford them more significant opportunities in the future.
To Offer Clients the Best
If you want to grow your business, you need to be able to offer clients and customers the best service, the best products, and the best experience. To do this, your staff need to be the best. This will help you to keep clients, attract new ones and build lasting working relationships.
To Limit Turnover
Training can be expensive, and you can face a loss of income if staff have to take time out of the business. But, it’s cheaper than having a high staff turnover. Having to recruit new staff, train them up and integrate them into your company costs money. The more often you do it, the more it will cost.
Offer great training programs and development, and your current staff won’t want to leave. You’ll be able to keep the same team for a long time. Saving a fortune on staff turnover.
To Make Important Relationships for the Future
It is fair to say that eventually, well trained, knowledgeable and experienced staff might want to move on. Your small business might no longer be able to offer them what they need. They might want to start up on their own. When this happens, let them go with grace. Knowing that they might be a vital connection for your business in the future.
How and when you train your staff depends on the size of your company and how you want to do things. Some managers choose only to offer further training when legislation or company policies change, or when new developments are made, or new systems and technology introduced. Others are always on the lookout for new ways to educate their staff. Some level of training becomes a regular part of work, and they utilize staff meetings, extra shifts and one on one sessions to offer as much education as possible. Then, there’s location. Some employers prefer to do all of their training in-house. They even employ full-time trainers as their company grows. This allows them full control over what is being taught and when and gives them a little more flexibility in the structure of training sessions. Others prefer to book their team onto relevant training courses from external companies. This gives them access to a greater knowledge base and gives their staff the chance to learn from qualified professionals and experts from different fields. It gives them a broader knowledge.
Of course, there are no hard rules on this. Find a system that works for you and your team.
Perhaps even a combination of different approaches. Allowing your staff to learn without affecting the quality of your business. But, whatever you do, make sure you develop your team as much as possible. It’s well worth it.
