Thursday, November 27, 2008
Introduction
Selecting effective training for your employees can vastly improve your chances of success. It can help build your competitive advantage and equip your employees with the skills that your business needs. When choosing training courses for your employees, it is a good idea to bear in mind that people learn in different ways. Training will be more effective if it meets employees' individual needs as well as your business needs.
The business case for investing in the development of people is compelling. Research shows that training your employees can bring your business an increase in productivity, profits, motivation and higher customer satisfaction. Impact of training on business performance. Ensuring that your employees have the right skills is crucial to the growth and success of your business. The business case for developing your staff is compelling - research shows that training can:
• increase productivity and quality of work
• increase profits
• reduce staff turnover and absenteeism
• improve customer satisfaction
• improve motivation
Training that achieves these results is typically:
• linked to business goals and performance
• part of a company-wide strategy
• focused on setting tangible objectives for employees
• part of a company policy, which sets out who is responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating training
By choosing the right type of training, you can make sure that your employees have the right skills for your business, and are kept up to date with best and new practices. This is applicable for all employees, right up to management level.
Identifying training needs
A training needs analysis (TNA) is an effective way to identify any gap between the skills your business needs and those your employees have. It involves gathering information to identify areas where your employees could improve their performance. You can use employee surveys, management observations, customer comments, company meetings and inspections to collect this information.
A TNA can help you clarify your objectives in training your staff. This is invaluable for ensuring that money is spent on training that will help your business to achieve its objectives.
To carry out a TNA, you need to:
• analyse your business goals and the skills required to meet these goals
• determine whether you are changing your products or business processes and what information or training employees will need to be effective in their job
• evaluate who you want to train and how best to reach them
• establish how employees will best accept and integrate training and their preferred learning method - for more information about learning methods, see the page in this guide on training methods that suit your people
• evaluate the training in place and decide what your company can and can't provide in the way of in-house training, funding and time
• assess which consultants or training providers can fill in these gaps
• take a decision on which type of training fits your needs best - for more information see the page in this guide on training methods to fit your business
It is crucial to assess skills gaps at all levels of the business, including senior management. Include yourself in this if you are an owner-manager. You may need to develop your entrepreneurial and technical skills as the business grows. Training methods to fit your business. Weigh up the pros and cons for each type of training before deciding which type, or types, to provide for your employees. Consider the cost, space, and time needed, as well as the return on investment, for each type of training.
Another factor in determining the most appropriate type of training is whether you think your business would benefit from an injection of new ideas, ie whether you prefer to buy in training or courses from a specialist provider or whether you want to design training materials in-house.
The choice of training will also depend on what you want your employees to learn and the number of employees that you wish to train, for example:
• seminars are a useful way of getting across a lot of information to a large audience
• workshops allow people to practise problem solving
• role-playing allows staff to learn by practising how they would react in specific situations
Whether you opt for in-house training or send employees to external providers may depend on your company's resources and circumstances. External training courses are more expensive and involve sending employees out of the workplace, which could be disruptive to your business.
However, you may not have the skills to train in-house. For example, if you are training employees in a specific software application, instructor-led courses may be the only solution.
You also need to ensure that there are equal rights of access to training for all employees, including home-workers, part-time workers and disabled staff. An e-learning course is one way, for example, of reaching home-workers. Scheduling courses in office hours at a time when part-time workers are present allows them and those with family commitments to participate.
After the training
Evaluating the effectiveness of training is a crucial step in building a culture of continuous professional development in your business. It gives you an opportunity to decide whether the training has been a success and whether more advanced/refresher training is needed.
The best way to do this is:
• review the impact of the training on the employee's performance
• Monitor improvements in the performance of the business - use both measurable indicators such as sales and staff turnover, and qualitative improvements such as fewer customer complaints and greater innovation
• ask employees whether the training was relevant and appropriate
• assess whether the training met your original objectives and if not, determine why not
For this to work, the objectives that you set out for your training need to be clear. Think about making them SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based
Author: by Kojo