Why do you think there is a need to discuss the reasons to train employees? Is it essential? Yes, it is. In today's ever-changing business style, the demand for on-the-job training is at an all-time high.
No employee you appoint possesses complete skills that match your work culture. And also, to gain a competitive edge over your competitors, you need to either train your employees about the latest developments or upgrade their existing skills.
Most of your staff holds specialization in one field. So, to develop cross-functionality among them to handle several roles within an organization and for better coordination, you need to conduct regular training and development sessions.
A comprehensive training and development program fills the skill gap of your workforce, enhances their knowledge, and increases harmonization among several departments that lead to smooth workflow within an organization.
Objectives of Training
Every organization has short-term and long-term objectives, such as increasing productivity, quality improvement, risk management, revenue generation, or brand building, among several others. These objectives relate directly to imparting training and development to their existing staff. There is no limit to the number of ways companies can carry out this process.
Let us now look at what goals companies wish to fulfill by making training and development programs a part of their work culture.
- Imparting job-related knowledge to the staff to face technological, economic, and political changes with ease and carry on with smooth business operations.
- To develop team spirit among workers and senior managers for better project execution.
- To make employees aware of the latest rules, regulations, and policies that aligns with the company's goals.
- To improve the productivity of both the employers and the company. It increases not only efficiency but also profits.
- To increase workplace safety. It ensures higher productivity and prevents unnecessary financial or human losses.
- To enhance correct usage of company's equipment. Proper training can reduce wear and tear, damage and increase the longevity of the equipment.
What Kind of Goals should Companies aim for?
To prepare a competent workforce equipped with advanced work knowledge, companies must carve out smart objectives to ensure that their training programs are executed successfully and help companies reach their target smoothly.
Let us now look at what smart objective means in training and development programs for organizations.
Specific: Creating a focused and detailed goal.
Measurable: Tracking progress and success of your objectives.
Achievable: Setting realistic objectives and ensuring that all the necessary resources are available to fulfill them.
Relevant: Aligning goals with your company's mission, vision, and purpose.
Time-specific: Setting a deadline for the completion of your goals.
Reasons to Train Employees
1. Better Knowledge of Employee Weaknesses and Skill Gaps
Employees are human beings and will have a few work-related weaknesses. But it does not mean they cannot improve. There is always a scope for improvement. A well-defined training program that targets specific skills will give each team member an equal opportunity to learn a new skill or upgrade their existing skills. It helps to transform your staff's weaknesses into strengths so that they can perform extraordinarily well at their job.
2. Better Performance at the Workplace
Once your employees overcome their weaknesses and get trained, their performance at the workplace improves manifolds. Though they are doing their day-to-day job before training, they gain a much better knowledge of their job and understand their responsibilities. They now possess the skills to do that job in an efficient manner that leads to increased productivity. It also helps them have a great understanding of the company's work culture and suggest measures to improve its performance.
3. Increased Financial Growth of the Company
The ultimate goal of any business is to gain financial growth. Companies cannot achieve it on their own. To run a profitable business, a highly-trained workforce is required. You have to provide necessary training to mold employees to work in alignment with your company's short-term and long-term goals. The output you get all depends on the quality of the training you provide.
Your experienced employees are your assets and possess the caliber to grow. A good training and development program will maximize their existing skills. This combination of talent, dedication and training will help them fulfill your company's goals.
4. Enhanced Employee Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is the key to a company's growth. When you acknowledge the efforts of your employees, they put their best efforts into making your project a success. So, when you impart training to your staff to upgrade their skill set, they feel rewarded.
They get access to new learning and feel satisfied that their efforts to take the company to new heights have been noticed. And when they feel happy, their productivity increases and they work with more energy and enthusiasm that ultimately benefits the company.
5. Consistent Work Knowledge in their Chosen Field
There is no doubt that the people whom you hire are skilled. They know the secrets of the trade and are fit for your company. But with changing trends, skills need to be polished. A robust training program ensures that your staff's skillset remains at par with the industry standards. It leads to increased understanding of the work process, product manufacturing, and better delivery of services to customers.
6. Increase the Employee Retention Rate
You often have to fire employees that are no longer fit for your company's current work requirements. You have to replace them with new staff. The recruiting process costs you time and money. And doing this frequently leads to less productivity which lowers the success rate of the company.
With regular training sessions, you allow your employees to improve their abilities. It results in minor mistakes, lower frustration level, increased retention rate, and the formation of a team of experts who can serve your company for a long time to come.
7. Enhanced Company's Brand Reputation
Skilled people always want to work with reputed organizations. And when you create a name for yourself in the market as an employee-friendly company, you attract new talent easily. It is a myth that employees leave a company for better opportunities after some time. But if they get to improve their existing skill set or learn the latest developments in their field and a chance to grow within the same company, they will never change their job.
When everyone knows how concerned you are in conducting frequent training and development sessions for your staff, everyone will prefer to be a part of your workforce.
Types of Training Programs
There is no limit to the number of training types. In a single field or subject, you can train employees to perform several roles with ease. Before learning about reasons to train employees, let us look at a few significant types of training that companies can impart to their staff.
Skill-based training: It involves imparting training based on job-related skills. It is given either to new staff or to enhance the existing team's skills and improve the job performance.
Retraining: It is subject-specific training given to present staff to update their technical and work knowledge, leading to innovative problem-solving ideas and smooth alignment with the company's internal policy changes.
Team management: It focuses on enhancing coordination among team members. It leads to better understanding among them and makes them known to handle problems independently.
Cross-functional training: It is given to enhance the working skills of employees to perform functions other than their allotted roles. It increases coordination among departments and reduces joblessness.
Creative training: The new-age teaching methodology is used to equip employees with skills that broaden their horizons to think out-of-the-box to develop innovative ideas and unique problem-solving techniques.
Literacy training: This training focuses on enhancing basic skills, such as reading, writing, public speaking, and good habit formation, such as punctuality, trustworthiness, and coordination.
Social skills training: This training focuses on developing awareness and respect among employees towards people and co-workers of different races, views and perspectives, religion, color, gender, background, country, and other social dissimilarities.
Compliance training: It involves educating your staff about several laws and regulations related to their industry or job. The function of these laws is to ensure workplace safety and to maintain employee self-respect.
Computer skills: Though today everyone knows how to handle computers, several tasks require advanced training and are specific to the company. Proper task-oriented computer literacy leads to better execution of office tasks.
Customer service training: It equips employees with skills to establish long-term relationships with customers, respond effectively, develop negotiation skills, and manage sales that lead to customer satisfaction.
Security training: It involves imparting risk management skills to identify risks, develop methods to mitigate them, and protect its assets from unauthorized activity or unethical hacking.
Modes of Training
There are several reasons to train employees. Similarly, there is no one method to deliver training to your staff. Depending on the available resources and employee availability, you can select from several training delivery methods at your convenience.
Online coaching: Your employees or team members can access the training through an online medium. It can be in the form of pre-recorded videos or live online interactive sessions.
Offline or classroom coaching: Employees undergo training at their workplace or any institute referred by their managers and get feedback on their learnings from their trainer.
Hands-on training: It involves live training on the project where employees apply their skills or knowledge in a replicated work environment.
Mock drills: In this team, members from one or more departments come together to enact a problem they might face and find solutions to handle it if it occurs.
Factors Affecting Training Modes
Depending upon your organization's goals and the resources available, the mode of your training will differ.
The choice to train your employees’ online, offline or hands-on, depends on the following factors:
Company's goals: The purpose of your training and the goals you want to accomplish decides whether to choose online or offline training. For example, training employees about a particular software usage can be done online but training them how to handle risk in an unexpected situation requires practical hands-on training.
Cost of training: Several factors, such as the cost of hiring a subject matter expert, making stay arrangements for employees if training is conducted out of your city, cost of mock setup, or certification expenses, should be considered beforehand.
Time availability: It is essential to complete the training within the stipulated time to save on its resources and boost productivity. Hence time plays a crucial role, and you must decide how much time is required to complete the training, i.e., a few days, months, or a year.
Employees' subject awareness: Decide whether your employees are familiar with the training topic or new to them. It will help you to carve out training modules accordingly for maximum employee benefit.
Group size: Calculate the number of people who need to receive the training, whether a small group or an entire team. Knowing this will help you create an effective training plan that leads to better utilization of the company's resources.
Availability of facilities: You might need to analyze if you have enough space to accommodate all the trainees, whether you will provide them with the training material or bring it along. If someone fails to attend, can you arrange a backup class and several others?
Conclusion
There are several reasons to train employees. But not all need to go along with your work culture. You can take ideas from the several types of training mentioned in this post and incorporate them into your program.
Also, several internationally recognized certifications are available that you can consider, such as Certification Courses by ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association), a globally recognized organization.
Investing in organizing employee training and development sessions is not an expense but a long-term investment. It creates a happy, engaging, and satisfied workforce enthusiastic about its job and benefits the company.
If you have ever conducted an employee training program, share the benefits you experienced after training in the comments.
