Is Employee Training Actually Important?

Hypothetical situation: You’ve been informed you need immediate brain surgery and you can choose between two surgeons. The first possesses years of continuous training on top of his certification but requires a steep down payment and a significant fee for the procedure. The second has minimal training past certification but requires no down payment and will perform the procedure at a low cost. Which surgeon do you choose?

With your life on the line, the well-trained surgeon is probably your best bet. So why do employers so often choose not to implement long-term employee training strategies?

Making the Change

If you polled a room full of people, how many do you think would say they look forward to annual training at work? Right – not many, if any at all. That’s because training tends to be poorly planned, meaning it ends up being boring and redundant. If nothing is gained from a training session, you’ve just wasted otherwise useful time and money.

Inadequate training programs are adopted when management undervalues the importance, and the long-term benefits, of effective training. The question is: if previous training programs didn’t work, why keep doing the same thing if you’re just wasting time, money, personnel, and materials.

It might take some time, but it’s not impossible to revamp your employee training program. The stark reality is that if you invest in useful, relevant, and engaging training, your employees will come out ahead – and so will your business. Here’s why.

Advanced Skill Set

A well-trained employee is a competent and productive employee. Not only can you trust properly trained workers to perform their job, you can anticipate that they’ll rise above expectations. Their contributions to the company will increase significantly and they’ll be equipped to take on bigger projects and more responsibility. If employees are continuously enhancing their communication skills, performing decisive crisis control, and working to maintain a positive workplace atmosphere, your business will earn positive feedback which will lead to brand growth and a larger customer base.

Improved Morale

More often than not, when people can see their own growth and improved performance, they become even more motivated to succeed. On the other hand, when people feel as if they are underachieving, they become less likely to work harder.

When employees are made to feel valuable, morale and loyalty increase along with production. And since it’s well documented that increased morale leads to decreased turnover, comprehensive employees training can also spare you the headache of searching for, interviewing, and training new employees.

Strengthened Employer-Staff Relationships

Advanced training can also help cultivate thriving relationships between management and employees. When employees feel confident in themselves and their work, employers are more likely to provide positive feedback, accolades, promotions, and salary increases. Further, communication between management and employees will be more fluid and cohesive, and staff will be more receptive to constructive feedback and less apprehensive make suggestions for improvement.

Reduced Losses

This one’s obvious: mistakes take time and money to fix, they raise safety concerns (for staff and clients), and they often result in lost customers. So, how do we avoid costly mistakes? You guessed it – initial and ongoing employee training.

Well-trained employees are less likely to make mistakes. When employees are trained to perform their jobs according to procedure, deliver high-quality customer service, and follow established workplace values and protocol, you’ll see a drastic decrease in errors, customer neglect, and general carelessness.

Effective training motivates and prepares your staff to maintain good connections with clients and co-workers. Remember, investing in your staff if the best way to reach your ultimate goal of earning more customers.