Tuesday 26 May 2015

POWER ON YOUR TRAINING TO POWER UP YOUR BUSINESS


Knowledge and skills development is vital to the health of organisations.  We live in an information age today, and organisations are routinely valued not just on their physical but on their intellectual capital.  Training is one of the chief methods of maintaining and improving intellectual capital, so the quality of an organisation’s training affects its value. Untrained or poorly trained employees cost significantly more to support than well-trained employees do.  Training affects employee retention and is a valuable commodity that, if viewed as an investment rather than as an expense, can produce high yielding returns.
Training is an organisations effort aimed at helping employees to acquire the basic skills required for the efficient execution of the functions for which they are hired.  Development, on the other hand, deals with activities undertaken to expose employees to perform additional duties and assume positions of importance in the organisational hierarchy.
Training and development are initiated in order to:
1.             Build a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company’s competitive position and improves employee morale.
2.             Relevantly remain in business.
3.             Create a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organisation.
4.             Enhance the company’s ability to adopt and use advances in technology because of a sufficiently knowledgeable staff.
5.             Ensure adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.
6.             Pilot or test the operation of a new performance management system
7.             Benchmark the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort.
Training is also initiated:
1.             As part of an overall professional development program
2.             When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
3.             When special projects and products are to be embarked upon
The benefits of training and development to employees and organisations alike are numerous:
1.             Workers are helped to focus, and priority is placed on empowering employees.
2.             Productivity is increased, positively affecting the bottom line.
3.             Employee confidence is built, keeping and developing key performers, enabling team development and contributing to better team/organisation morale. 
4.             Employees are kept current on new job-related information, thereby contributing significantly to better customer service.
5.             Employees are updated on new and enhanced skills, with a view to aligning them to business goals and objectives.
6.             After a downsizing, remaining workers are given the technical and management skills to handle increased workloads.
7.             Companies with business problems are given a fresh or unbiased professional opinion or exploration, evaluation, or critique.
8.        Job satisfaction, employee motivation and morale are increased, reducing employee turnover.
9.        Processes increase in efficiency, resulting in financial gain.
10.    Innovation is increased, bringing new strength to strategies, products and the company’s capacity to adopt new technologies and methods.
Typical Topics of Employee Training
  1. Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a wide variety of languages, customs and platforms
  2. Computer skills: Computer skills are a necessity for many company tasks.
  3. Customer service: Increased competition in today's global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
  4. Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
  5. Ethics: Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility.
  6. Human relations: The increased stresses of today's workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can people to get along in the workplace.
  7. Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, and hazards in workplaces.
  8. Sales: The focus on sales has never been greater, with opportunities harder to find and where every prospect is lost to a competitor. This means losses are more costly and that the companies who focus on building this strength will emerge financially victorious
Learning and upgrading employee skills makes business sense. It starts from day one, and becomes successive as your employees grow. Granted, it may take some time to see a return on your investment, but the long-term gains associated with employee training make a difference. The short-term expense of a training program ensures you keep qualified and productive workers who will help your company succeed. That’s an investment you can take to the bank.

Emmanuel @ Logicus Training Solutions

Leading the Training and Development Revolution by Daring to be Different!
Multi Award Winning Training and business consultants (www.logicustraining.com.au)