If you hire employees, you likely know that this is not a static arrangement. You can hire a person to do a job for fair pay, but over time, they will want to grow and potentially raise above their station. Not all will, but many will. This means that it’s important to consider the natural progression of a staff’s potential pathway before you hire them. It might not be that you have all elements of your business developed right now, but it might be that a promise of future promotion and effective upwards mobility can help someone stay at your firm. This lowers your staff turnover, which is something you should hope to achieve.
But of course, before you can hope to promote, you need to train. Training comes before all. But what defines effective staff training? How might you utilize this to ensure everything is taken care of well, and that you not only help staff become more effective, but also more responsible? There are many methods you could take to achieve this. For this article, we hope to express the most important utilities of training, and how you might arrive there.
Consider:
Functionality
Of course, it would be ideal for all of our staff members to be all-rounders. This way, if someone in a department was unable to work due to illness or maternity, we could easily transition employees from one place to another. However, while this can be possible in theory, it does have hidden difficulties that you might not consider. There’s more to department-hopping than it might seem from the top, but familiarizing themselves with the project, forging social connections and generally finding experience in that field could all take a little time for the temporarily placed employee to adopt. This simply means that training all our staff in every single thing is impractical at best, a waste of time at worst.
The functionalities of your training are important to consider. It can be worthwhile to train your employees in skills they might need in the future, but it’s best to train them in what will be appropriate now. What will help them remain effective? What will help them stay present and up-to-date? What can help them find optimized results through their role and implement them functionally? Then, when this foundation is complete, can you start worrying about the future roles of your business and how you might adopt their specialist tendencies into your training plans.
Safety
While the titans of industry might disagree on how to practically run a business, almost all of them would agree that focusing on safety in the workplace is always, eternally viable and valuable. In fact, it’s more than something that could be done, it’s something that should be done. Business leaders are always worried that their training efforts might not be as valuable as they’d hoped, or perhaps that the investment could be a little strained in its return. But training staff in a CPR certification online? Well, that could save a life. This is much more than simply having singular ‘first aiders’ here and there around the building. This could ensure a baseline level of dependency and help if needed, and could potentially prevent issues from taking place. Not only this, but it helps train staff to be proactive and care about one another, and see each other for the human’s that they are.
Some office atmospheres, some you might have experienced, could have likely needed this new perspective injected, because we all know how office politics can get. We’re not suggesting that this would completely solve the issue, but it might be a worthwhile first step, outside of team building. But of course, when hoping to team build, you have to be careful. Consider:
A Careful Approach
The moment you wish to start your staff training, you need to be careful. A simple Google search can put you in contact with many, many speakers and presenters. These services might range from motivational speaking, business tips and insight, general consultations and even life coaches. It’s important to separate the wheat from the chaff here. It might be that you hire a motivational speaker, only to realize this presenter would be much more equipped to rile up a sports team, rather than an office. Perhaps those claiming they are a ‘life coach’ might need some accreditation before you actually consider their services hugely valuable.
There are a wide range of people out there selling advice, and if you’re not discerning in your selection, you might find someone who speaks in generalities, emotional arguments and empty platitudes. These people can be found all over services like Instagram, YouTube, and others. Avoid the ‘burgeoning entrepreneur’ types. Instead, look for those who actually have some experience, who are offering tailored tuition with a purpose, and those who are willing to actually view your staff and see what they could improve. Consider enrolling in actual programs with qualifications at the end of it. Carting your office into a room to hear someone speak could be functionally useless unless this has some practical consideration.
Enrolling your office in a first-aid program? Infinitely useful? Bringing them to a ‘go-getters’ seminar? Questionable, even if some glean value from it. After all, perhaps investing in yourself and your public speaking ability, such as through a service like Toastmasters, could help you provide this inspirational form factor to your office without having to spend a high hourly fee.
Unity
While it’s not always completely needed, a sense of unity can help staff members come together in the spirit of learning something new. For example, sending a few of your staff members on a placement trip to conduct a course for three days not only helps them learn and potentially gain a new qualification they can use, but also the promise of bonding with those they journey there with. This is a small benefit and perhaps not something you are investing in solely, but it can still make a major difference in how effective your training comes across.
Income
When staff become trained anew, they might find themselves more qualified and capable than before. It can be worthwhile to implement a careful promotion line upwards or salary improvement should they become accredited with this kind of value. This not only encourages your staff to take part in these optional programs, but it might help them become pro-active and wish to learn more, or apply what they now know effectively. This means that the natural extent of the true training in the field will come into play.
Staying Updated
The modern business landscape moves fast. Technological developments, new innovations in business progression, and even the political and social landscape will all have a direct impact on your firm. This is why it’s important to stay updated. Of course, there have been questionable strides made to conduct ‘sensitivity training’ for staff in many firms, as if staff were some kind of blundering, offending set of troublemakers only kept in check by being patronized. This is pointless without a great HR policy, and perhaps offers nothing more than you could already expect given your internal standards. But training as to the best use of modern expectations in PR? That could matter.
Staying updated not only in best business practice, but in the wider world around you can help you achieve a sense of harmony with the world outside, to ensure that your firm stays with the tide, and uses that as a launch pad to innovate for the future. This is where the best creative development happens.
Structure
It’s one thing to simply offer training plans now and then to deserving staff, it’s quite another to come to an understanding with training services and structure it into your employee development, to a quite regular and reliable degree. Not only will this help more of your staff flourish as they become more experienced, but you might be able to get discounts on the training plans with a form of arrangement like this, as you’ll be investing in a larger amount of functional development. This can also help skilled applicants or graduates in their desire to work for your firm. Sometimes the difference between two similarly-paying jobs in similar industries is a great training structure, as staff often want to leave your firm better than they were when entering it. Not only this, but this can help lower staff turnover quite considerably, and that is perennially useful. Who knows? It might even offset the cost of investment in training.
A great staff training structure can, in its end results, leave almost every promotion or open position to become an internal event, rather than having to hire managers or board members from other industries. Sometimes, a little home-grown care can go the longest way. You’d probably be quite surprised.
With these tips, we hope that defining effective staff training is sure to be worthwhile, and give your firm all the potential for the future.
