These days, as hard as you might search for the perfect workforce in terms of skills, you will rarely be satisfied with what you find. Not because people are less trained or less intelligent, in fact often quite the opposite is true and the workforce is generally very highly qualified. However, university courses lack the practical and niche training that is required for most roles. Therefore, third parties have picked up the slack at a cost and provide very useful upskilling courses which can address particular skills required in certain industries. If it is your company’s responsibility to pick up the tab, then what are the returns on their investment?
Strengthen the weak links
Your workforce is only as strong as your least skilled, least confident employee. People may not all hold the same qualifications in terms of university degrees, however regardless of their role, they should be skilled and confident in it. Providing workplace training is a means of addressing these weaknesses and turning them into strengths. Rather than searching in vain for the perfect employee or letting someone go because of a skill they are not very strong in, it takes far less effort and money to simply empower them through training. Not only that, but it is a way of valuing your employees, which is a benefit in itself.
Less errors, less hazards, increased safety
Providing workplace training helps ensure a better employee performance and the benefits of this for the company are self-explanatory. There are less errors happening, resulting in less downtime or call-backs, resulting in less wasted time and money. However, there is another extremely important component in the equation to consider. Untrained staff are hazardous. People who do not know what they are doing or how to operate machinery for example, pose a very real risk to company safety. Of course, it should be at the forefront of every company’s mind to reduce hazards and ensure their workplace is a safe one. Workplace training is a very important way of achieving this even if it is simply providing a session on how to safely carry out inventory management procedures in the warehouse.
The same thing, the same way, everyday
One of the challenges facing managers, particularly when it concerns very experienced staff, is that everyone has learnt a different way to do things. Now, in the grand scheme of things this may not be a huge concern, however when it starts to affect the efficiency of processes or the quality of the product, then it needs to be addressed. Workplace training is a way of ensuring that there is a certain level of consistency in the way processes are carried out. And consistency and robustness of a process facilitates quality which is of paramount importance.
Workplace Training Worthiness
Some companies treat workplace training as a reward that employees should attain to and earn. In some respects, this may not be wrong as indeed, it is a privilege. However, how about flipping the idea on its head and considering that if workplace training is freely provided to everyone and is encouraged, that staff may feel empowered through expanding their skillset and gaining knowledge. This would then provide them with a sense of worth and a renewed interest in their job.
Looking to the future
Just as technology must adapt for this new and expanding world we live in, so should people’s abilities and skills. Workplace training is a means of preparing the company and individual staff members for the future. Just as an individual who refuses to learn computing would soon become no longer ‘relevant’ and employable, so too would the same happen to a company who refused to upskill staff to keep up with current trends.
Workplace training can be a costly endeavour which is often talked about and included in KPIs (key performance indicators) however sometimes, regrettably, that is where it starts and ends. The benefits of providing training for staff are endless, both for the company and the individual. So why not give it a go?