Training your Staff
Your workforce drives your business. Whether you have just taken on a new employee in your company or need to expand the skills in any existing team; – training your staff in accordance with your company culture supports their overall job satisfaction.
Why Train your Staff?
Training your employees allows for more accurate and successful execution of your business operations. Following your business’s workforce plan, there should already be measures in place as to what training is required and where or who it needs to be invested in. The action now is to decide how you want to provide said training. It could be internally delivered, externally delivered or a little of both. There are pros and cons to both methods, however, these cannot be entirely transferable universally. First, it’s worth taking a refresher and reviewing your business plan, check your budget and what your company’s goals are.
After reviewing your Business and Workforce Plans, you should now know what training method is most suitable and how you will supply it to best fit the company and employee. It’s worth considering whether you can afford training and whether anyone in-house could have any valuable input and be a trainer themselves. What leadership or management style best suit the individual(s) taking the training? Typically, in a dynamic fast-paced work environment training is outsourced, however, if your company specialises in something very unique then it may be worth doing it in-house.
Is Internal Training Right for you?
Training your team or employee internally can have many advantages to it. The main benefit is that it’s usually the cheaper method as opposed to outsourcing it. However, internally sourcing your training means that the company as a whole isn’t learning anything new and it limits your options on who specifically can train your new member. For example, if you are looking to train one of your salespeople in a particular method, to perhaps, qualify a lead, you are limiting the learning to someone in-house who knows this process well enough to teach it. It may be that there is only one member who can provide this training, although their teaching style may clash with the trainee. Potentially it could be that the individual knowledgeable enough to provide the training, is too busy with high priority work and it will cost the business too much in time. Aside from this, internally sourcing your training can transfer your business values and expectations across to the trainee better than any other external provider.
Is External Training Right for you?
Outsourcing your training to an external provider is the method least obstructive to your business operations. You can send off the employee to a provider specialising in the subject matter you want them to learn. This prevents you from sacrificing the relevance or quality of the training if you were to try and internally source it. Its best used for providing, specialist knowledge and also in supplying the company itself with new insights and opinions. The disadvantage is that this can be a cash expensive venture.
In context, if you discovered from your business plan that your workforce needed some basic training in Windows OS due to the company changing their tech. Then you will know how many people are familiar with the software and who aren’t. If your budget is limited, then its most suitable to source your training internally and use the people who are familiar with Windows. However, if your budget wasn’t a concern and the training needed to be in depth. There are likely few staff members who know the software well enough to teach it, this is when outsourcing the training to a specialist is needed.
Conclusion
Ultimately, your choice of internally or externally sourcing your training will depend on your industry, your staff and your budget. These factors may restrict you in choosing your preferred training but will cater to your business and your employee’s needs. Your decision process should consider these factors as it will allow you to get the most out of your investment.
In your decision-making process, you should review your business plan to see what skills and knowledge the company needs. Look over your workforce plan, assess what skills and knowledge your workforce currently have. These two documents combined will tell you what training is needed (specialist or basic) and who in the company have those skills and those who don’t. Once these parameters are defined, refer to your budget.
Once you have addressed these factors you should now know whether you can; – afford external training, safely train your staff internally without sacrificing the quality provided and finally whether training your staff is even worth investing in at this moment in time.
Written By Leyla Hussein