Knowledge is power: one of the best things you can do for your business this year is put consistent, thorough effort into training your workforce. Why? It’s simple: an educated workforce will do their jobs better, and might surprise you with their innovation and productivity. Ultimately, in-house training schemes bring more business to your business.
What can in-house training give employees?
In-house training can bring big benefits to employees. First of all, it ensures that (having gone to the trouble of hiring the right people) you’ll be investing in targeted, tailored programmes to develop your staff further. Whilst it’s great to keep hiring, it makes sense to maximise your existing resources too – especially when it costs so much to lose an employee.
Secondly, in-house training means your employees can improve or develop meaningful skills that they previously lacked by learning how to use software from providers like CIPHR, for example. The inevitable consequence of training is that your workers will become more efficient – they’re properly trained to perform the tasks and responsibilities you ask of them.
In addition, providing in-house training ensures that you’re more likely to hold on to your employees as there’s no need for them to go elsewhere to develop their skillset. Moreover, trained employees are going to feel more valued and respected than their non-trained counterparts, which ultimately makes them happier… it’s no secret that happy employees tend to be the most productive and profitable employees for a business!
What can in-house training give a business?
Done well, in-house training can help a business make more money. Why? One reason is that under-trained employees might cost a business lost time and money due to mistakes and inefficiencies. It makes sense, therefore, to invest in well-trained employees who are able to get the job done properly the first time round.
Another reason in-house training is so important is that employees value being formally trained. Titles, positions of responsibility and salary all contribute towards a feeling of satisfaction in the workplace, but workers also feel that formal development, training, mentoring and coaching is something they value very highly too. So, by developing an in-house training scheme, you’re more likely to retain your employees and ensure they’re productive and profitable for your business.
Finally, high quality in-house training will ensure you have the best people working for you, giving you a competitive advantage to help ensure you’re ready for change and growth.
Why is in-house training so valuable (versus external training)?
In-house training is occasionally better than external training. One reason it’s so valuable is that you can tailor it to your business’s goals, objectives and wider strategy. Furthermore, it might give you better control of the quality and consistency of the training being delivered to your workforce than external training can always achieve.
Finally, in-house training allows plenty of room for customisation, ensuring that otherwise generic topics are suitable, specific and relevant to your workplace. Above all else, in-house training will give you an opportunity to assess your business’s skill shortages. You’ll see the gaps that need filling!
Photo credit: The unbound book conference on reading and publishing in the digital age. http://www.e-boekenstad.nl/unbound Photo: Sebastiaan ter Burg