The Importance of Training Employees for Business Success
Your people are very important. They are behind the business operations. Without them, your business won’t work nor grow. As a manager, it is your primary obligation to motivate them in order to increase their productivity and achieve your business goals. However, according to U.K.’s Office for National Statistics, workers’ productivity decline in some labor areas including manufacturing and services.
There are many factors why employees are becoming unproductive. Basically, they are not motivated to work. Some of the primary reasons are lack of job security, poor work environment, and their unhealthy relationship with their boss.
Thus, it is very important that employees are fueled to work harder and more efficiently. According to business experts, it is best that employees undergo consistent training. Training employees may cost time and money, but the long-term effects will be very beneficial to the business. Employees will become more effective and productive.
4 Importance of Training Employees
A company or a business shall invest money and time on training and re-training their employees, both old and new. Training helps in motivating workers to contribute towards the achievement of your business goals.
Makes them happy
Generally, untrained employees are unhappy employees. Answers Cloud Services surveyed 4, 115 employees in America about employee productivity. Based on the results, a huge 72% of the employees stated that formal training increased their commitment towards their work. According to Eric Feinberg, senior director of Answers Cloud Services, training and education provide a perception to the workers that the company is investing in them and their success.
Increases their productivity
In 2015, the Office for Budget Responsibility found out that decreased employee productivity contributed to the delay of the economic recovery of the United Kingdom. Apparently, untrained workers are producing less, poor quality outputs. Training employees will help them realize of their tasks. It will also help in improving their skills and expanding their knowledge to be productive at work.
Reduces cost
Untrained workers are prone to delivering poor outputs. They also tend to make more mistakes. With this, more time and money are lost due to their inefficiency and unproductivity. To solve this problem, training is needed. If employees are productive and efficient, costs will be reduced.
Improves customer service
Lastly, employees who are poorly-skilled are most likely to lose customers. This happens when they do not know how to interact with customers. It is very important that they undergo management training on how to deal with clients.
8 Strategies for Training Employees
Managing and training employees demand time, patience, and money. Different types of employees require different types of training programs as well. Here are 8 effective strategies on how to train your employees:
Use advanced technology
In this digital era, technology is already a part of everything. It redefines how business is done, including training employees. Through the use of technology, lesser time for preparation and lesser expenses are needed. There are various ways on how to innovate training programs and modules through the use of technology. E-training is also more fun and interactive and is very effective in imparting knowledge to employees. Apart from computers, virtual reality (VR) is seen as a breakthrough technology in training employees.
Encourage workers to share
Communication is very important in every aspect. In training, you should encourage the workers and employees to share their experiences, their insights, and their problems. From here, you can extract the factors that are affecting their performance and productivity. Moreover, most employees who are not motivated to work do not have an outlet to express their ideas. Thus, it is important that during training, their voices should matter.
Customize training programs
Of course, the training should be specifically designed for this group of employees. Training for managers is different from training for handyman contractors. The module and the exercises should be customized and are targeted towards the improvement of their respective skills. There are many experts in making training modules. Further, you can actually ask your workers when you create the training module.
Focus on their strengths
Some employers and managers conduct training to revert the workers’ weaknesses. This is wrong! Training is initially done for you to be aware of their strengths and edges among others. It is your responsibility to optimize their strengths. Through this, you know what area of work they will be much more productive and efficient. You will have the idea where they will likely excel. Every member should be comfortable with what they are doing. If they are given tasks they are not familiar with, they will spend too much time and effort learning the skill which will affect productivity.
Promote teamwork
One of the reasons why employees are not motivated to work is because of their fellow workers. Their relationship with each other affects their performance. It’s either of unhealthy competition or personal ill-will. During training, it is important that you make them work altogether. They should develop the value of teamwork. Remember, when they help one another, the business will be productive. According to a research from the Gallup organization, employees are inspired to work if they have a best friend at work.
Let senior employees inspire them
Senior employees came from their level. They are likely to be aware of what it feels like when they are down and not motivated. It will be helpful to let senior employees share their experiences and struggles and how they overcame these. Let senior employees inspire them to work harder and make them believe that perseverance and determination pay in the long run.
Set achievable and realistic goals
Introduce the business goals during the training. Make them realize how important it is to achieve these goals. If the company meets its goal, the employees benefit. Thus, set goals that they can achieve and accomplish. These goals should fit their skills and work.
Definitely, training employees is so important. It reinforces to them the importance of working hard. Their productivity and efficiency as employees do not just benefit the business, but themselves as well.