Training and Development

Business owners may be excused for not always prioritising employee training and development. However, this approach can lead to staff retention issues, low employee morale, and productivity.

Your business relies on the talented staff you employ. If you need to enhance the skills, knowledge and efficiency of your workforce then training and development are key.

This article looks at the importance of staff training and development within your organisation. Failure to train and develop staff effectively could lead to poor talent development and poor talent acquisition.

For further information read below or, contact our HR experts today on 01455 858 132.

What Is Employee Training?

Employee training is upskilling employees so that they can be more productive, innovative, and efficient. Ultimately, this could lead to more staff members aspiring to leadership roles.

If you want your staff to contribute more to your business, training programs might be the answer. This may be through vocational training, online training, or mentoring.

Reskilling is also a type of training that could provide a way forward to more engaged and skilled staff. Encouraging your employees to move around your business could enable them to learn new specific skills that could further their careers.

HR's role is to create an environment where staff can grow. Focus on needed skills and ensure employees feel that they can aspire to be future leaders. The main benefit of training is to improve employee retention and increase efficiency.

What Is Development Training?

Employee development is a slightly more long-term process of providing training to staff. Development refers to building on existing competency and skills. The end goal is to develop additional new skills. This could be via a formal development program or by simply providing employees with continuous learning opportunities.

Developing employee skills can enhance and support your organisation’s goals. There is also a commercial consideration. When done correctly, development can pay off in the long run with improved productivity and output.

Dismissing an employee for poor performance, for example, and recruiting a new one costs money. Developing that same employee can also be expensive. Although it may take longer, a well-executed development strategy could lead to longer employee retention.

What Are the Benefits of Employee Training and Development

A well thought out training and development program is effective on many levels. Your employees, HR management and wider organisational performance can all benefit. These benefits include:

Improve employee performance

Improving your staff is a continuous pro active process. Continuously training employees can help you to retain a competitive advantage.

Investing in a skilled workforce can yield excellent commercial results through development initiatives. So, ensure that your skills training is up to speed.

Employees can handle challenges more effectively

The ability to deal with change is vital in most businesses. Change can be challenging but if handled properly it can also bring opportunities.

Take, for example, digitisation. Many training and development programs focus heavily on technical training to perform specific tasks, either online or on a computer. For many industries, talent development relies on continuous training in digital software.

The biggest benefit to having these educational activities in your business is ensuring that your staff are better equipped to meet the challenges of the modern business landscape.

Consistent training and a learning culture to attract talent

Advertising training and development programs as part of a job role allows prospective staff to see your business values talent and development. Likewise, job satisfaction amongst your current team is key to motivation. If you want low employee turnover then training and development is essential.

There are many ways to deliver consistent training, from on the job training to e-learning. In order to help improve performance for employees or new talent, you should build personalised development plans.

Is it cheaper to retain employees?

Should your business choose to invest in new skill training, you may find you save money versus paying high recruitment fees. This isn't a short term reactive process. Training programs are there for employee growth but also to ensure a comprehensive understanding of their current role.

As part of effective management you should review the knowledge of your personnel regularly. If you can spot gaps and provide training to rectify this, this could be a money-saver in the long run.

Can training programs help develop leadership skills?

For your business to thrive in the future, you should consider management training.

Having a strong leadership culture in your business could have a significant impact on your bottom line. You can train via instructor led training, computer based training or simply ensure you track employees' growth potential through performance management.

There are many traits associated with good leaders, including:

• Be results orientated.
• Be customer focused.
• Have a vision.
• Be strategically focused.
• Effectively get work done through others.
• Be good at dealing with conflict.
• Ask great questions.
• Make high-quality decisions.
• Be a trusted leader.
• Be an incredible communicator.

A benefit of in-house training and development is that it can be aligned with your organisation's requirements.

Do good training and development programs improve employee motivation?

Delivering great training and development is a way to ensure employees learn and engage with your business.

Promoting employee training and having a workforce who are engaged at all levels of your organisation is key to sustained success. Through training and development you can ensure you:

• Drive employee engagement.
• Place an emphasis on motivation.
• Create a mission statement for your business.
• Ensure your staff have a good working environment,
• Promote employee recognition and appreciation.
• Deliver frequent communication with all levels of your workforce.

An engaged workforce is a productive workforce. Employee engagement should therefore be a strategic priority for your business. In addition to training and development, you could consider an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to monitor staff wellbeing.

Use your policies and handbooks to outline a well-defined employee engagement program. This can be critical as a motivational tool for your staff, alongside clear training, development and employee growth opportunities. This will ensure a fully motivated workforce at all levels of your company.

Does training and development give you flexibility?

For any business to thrive, you need to make sure you're flexible and accommodating to all stakeholders. Having a workforce with excellent knowledge and skills can make your company more innovative. This is what robust training and development plans offer your organisation.

As well as knowledge, these programs develop new skills and current job satisfaction.

Is a training and development program right for your business?

Training your employees and ensuring clear development paths can deliver a highly skilled, highly motivated, and dynamic workforce. This is crucial for any organisation. The best way to raise standards is to invest in growing staff knowledge and skills.

Invest in your team with training and ongoing development to deliver financial benefits to your organisation. This is achieved through performance improvements.

If you're looking to improve morale and retention - training and development is the route for you.

Get help on staff training and development with Croner

Your training and development process is a key component in your employees' growth potential in your organisation. The morale of your employees and the ability to attract talent is intrinsically linked to your training and development. Therefore you need to ensure that you consider how to implement a robust training and development program aligned with your business values and goals.

Investing in your employee training and development strategies will allow your employees to learn from within your business. This exposes them to like-minded people across the organisation. Croner can help with this.

Croner has a team of award-winning health & safety specialists who are on hand to advise businesses 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Why not speak to a Croner expert on 0800 124 4378?