Training in the workplace is a practice that’s seen by many employers as an introductory measure only, but are businesses that don’t invest in educating their staff beyond their first few days, weeks or months failing to understand the value of training as a continuous, value-added process?
By and large, the answer is yes. Training is, of course, a fundamental part of any new starter’s initiation into their new workplace, but the benefits of training established, even veteran staff throughout the course of their tenure aren’t something you want to miss out on. Here’s why you should always be investing in your team and their learning within the company.
Grow from within
One of the biggest challenges in business lies in building a truly talented team of people that understand what it takes to make an enterprise run effectively and successfully. Particularly when it comes to recruiting at a senior level, getting the right fit can be a huge challenge, which makes an external recruitment process potentially costly and time-consuming – and the end result isn’t always as desired.
The way to counterbalance that is to grow the management team organically from within – taking people who’ve started with the business at a more junior level and developing them to succeed at a higher one. But to do that, you need to ensure that a dynamic and continuous training infrastructure is in place to actually allow them to develop their skills.
Train people well, and you’ll be able to promote from within using those who know the work best, creating seamless growth transitions for your business.
Keep hold of your best people
Good staff demand development and progression, and it’s a common, now rather old-fashioned misconception that training staff too well means they’ll move on to pastures new. On the contrary, a good training scheme that encourages ongoing development will aid staff retention, especially in relation to your best people. That’s because they’ll feel valued and invested in, especially if you champion the aforementioned promote from within culture.
Top talent never wants to stay in the same place for long, but that doesn’t mean it can’t stay in the same business long. Keep your staff engaged, learning and moving forward and you’ll be rewarded with a loyal, hungry team. Don’t bother with training, and you could find your key people look elsewhere for inspiration.
Improve the business
Promoting from within with people who know the business, keeping hold of your best people – two things that are absolutely essential if you really want to make something of your business and brand, and both vastly improved through training. Investing in new learning tools will help to expand your team’s skill base and enable them to work in a more productive, resourceful and cost-effective manner.
In no uncertain terms, then, the quality of your ongoing training efforts has a lot to do with the financial and reputational success of the business. So, regardless of whether you’re carrying out your training with the best intentions for your team or entirely out of personal interest for the sake of success, your internal process improvements should never stop moving forward.