Why Employee Training is Critical to your Company’s Success

Do you think your employees don’t do what they are supposed to do? If so, you aren’t alone. Wondering why? A research project with 29,000 managers uncovered that one of the primary reasons is they don’t know how to do their job.

Do you think you already have a training program in place?  It may be ineffective - here are several reasons employees still don’t know what to do:

• The people training them don’t know how to train or how employees learn best.
• There is a lack of any evaluation to see if learning has occurred.
• Experienced employees are often assigned to train new employees without having the skills to teach effectively.
• Employees don’t have an opportunity to practice what they have learned before having to perform the new skill in real time.

Your employees are your most important asset. Investing in training leads to greater business growth and success.  A recent Gallup study showed that workgroups that engaged in employee development, including training, saw a sales increase and profits double compared with workgroups that didn’t engage in training

A consistent and effective training program has the following additional benefits:

• Higher employee engagement
• Lower turnover
• Higher productivity and profitability
• Better task management because of improved skills
• Increased confidence in performing their responsibilities
• Standardized processes and procedures leading to less wasted time and effort
• Improved company culture by building on each employee’s strengths and providing opportunities for growth and promotion
• Reduction of the need for constant supervision because each employee is equipped with the skills to succeed

Managers are key in the development of training approaches and programs. Here are the steps to make certain that the employees you supervise receive the training they need:

• Identify the skills and knowledge needed to competently perform each job in your work group. During this evaluation, elicit input and information from each employee doing the job.
• Identify available training programs for each of your employees.
• Assess each employee’s performance and identify gaps in skills and/or information.
• Ask each employee what skills they would like to develop to do their jobs better.
• Create and communicate an action plan for each employee outlining the training and desired outcomes.

One approach does not fit all employees. Best practices include:

• Targeting soft skills - soft skills help employees fully utilize their hard skills. Skills such as conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, time management, and working well under pressure are critical in the workplace. Employees with soft skills make for good team players and efficient managers.
• Personalizing the training – analyze what skills each employee needs to learn, acknowledge their current abilities, build on strengths, and identify their best approach to learning.
• Making training easy – remove obstacles by making sure employees are given time and support for learning. Use multiple platforms, including online and mobile, that make it easy to access the training.
• Allowing learning at their own pace – most employees prefer to learn when the need arises, making independent online learning a good choice for your workforce.

An investment in training will transform your workforce from “employees that don’t know what to do” to a well-honed team working efficiently and effectively to meet goals and business objectives.