Many small business owners can often feel that there is never enough time, money, and human resources to allow time for staff training, which is one of the most important ingredients required for your business to succeed. When you invest in training, you can ensure that everyone on your team has a very good understanding of their job and what you and your customers expect from them.
Studies have shown that training boosts employees’ feelings of competence and confidence. When people know what is expected of them, they also feel that their self-esteem is boosted and in turn, it reduces the stress that employees can feel while in the workplace. This contributes to reduced staff turnover, less sick days taken and therefore reduced costs to the business.
As a small business, you may not have the same budget as the larger companies, but by using some of the tips from Negotiations Training Institute, you can create an effective training program for your small business. Read on for more information:
What are your employee’s career goals?
Firstly, find out what your employees enjoy. What hobbies do they have? By taking an interest it can help you connect with them on a personal level and people will feel more valued.
Additionally, by spending some quality time getting to know your team, you can assign them tasks that are more relevant to their personal and career goals. It will also help you identify training and development opportunities that can prepare your employees for their journey up the career ladder.
Action on lessons learnt from training
A mistake that many businesses make when they invest time and money in training is how to show their staff ways to apply what they’ve learned, in a practical environment. Make sure that you follow-up with questions about what employees will do differently as a result of the training and knowledge that they have now gained.
Ensure training sessions are engaging
All employers strive towards a happy and engaged workforce. Make sure that your staff are part of your training programme. To get them involved and peak their interest ask them what topics they would like to see covered in future training courses.
Ensure that you have hands-on materials and all appropriate equipment available, so your staff can practice doing what they are learning.
Use the right setting for training
When you are conducting training sessions, the environment has a lot to do with the effectiveness of employee training. Training staff at their desk, for instance, will create too many distractions and prevent your employees from fully focusing on their development.
Therefore you should create a quiet area for training that’s away from your main office. By doing so your employees can completely focus on learning new skills without being interrupted by routine business. If you are in shared office space, can you make use of the meeting room facilities available?
Availability
When you hire someone new, the first few weeks are full of learning new things. They need to learn to get along with new people and be productive in a new work environment. You will need to put time aside to answer their questions and make sure they are settling in and feel comfortable enough to ask when they are unsure about specific tasks.
An effective way to train your employees is to encourage them to be open and create a trusting environment where they feel comfortable to ask you any questions that come to mind. Also make sure to have suitable documentation in place, in case you or other members of your team are out of the office.
Resources
As a small business, you won’t have the same resources as the multinational companies, but by investing what resources you have in training, will boost employee performance, competence, satisfaction and retention. Look after your employees, and they will look after your customers much more effectively.
Be sure to also take advantage of funding available in your region. In Scotland, for example, there are numerous grant and loan schemes to help small businesses. See the following link for further information:
https://www.mygov.scot/funding-advice-search/