Training Employees: Investing in Your Business

I think most business, if they could, would happily invest in training and development of their employees.

But when a GFC hits, and over a relatively sustained period of time businesses are ‘doing it tough’, training and development can be one of the budget areas hardest hit. It can be hard to justify the cost of expensive training companies, seemingly overpriced courses and skill development in areas which may not be directly helpful to improving the business profitability in the immediate future. Businesses need to recognise the importance of investing in their staff in training and development as an investment in employee engagement, and ultimately business productivity.

So how, in a tough economic climate, can businesses cost effectively offer training and development opportunities to their team?

1. In house training courses – conducting training doesn’t have to mean getting an expensive external facilitator in to provide training, or sending your staff out to offsite courses. In house training can be the most relevant and beneficial to your team. Arrange time where groups of staff can participate together, whilst the business can still operate. This way you reduce ‘down time’ but still create the team building impacts which training can have.
2. Create a consistent training program by asking each department to facilitate a different training session each month. Something relevant to them perhaps, or a topic you know they’d be great at presenting. This allow this department to benefit from the research and development of the content, and the rest of the team to benefit from the delivery of the content.
3. Ask employees what training they actually want. You may find you had previously been offering training which staff were willingly accepting and attending, but that in fact was not all that important to them.
4. Investigate all the options. You may find that TAFE or a Community College facilitates accredited courses at a cheaper, or more flexible delivery option than other private providers do.
5. Ask employees what they are prepared to pitch in. If an employee is strongly committed to up-skilling themselves through training and studies, then they may be willing to pitch in with the fees or with completing the course at appropriate times. If, for example, you can’t afford to have that person missing for a 5 day course, they may be prepared to complete the course at night, via correspondence or on weekends instead. Many employees would be willing to split the cost of a course with an employer, or even pay for it themselves, provided they could have the work days off to complete it.
6. Negotiate with your suppliers. If businesses are doing less training, then training providers must also be feeling the impact. You are in a better position now to negotiate with your suppliers to get the best deal for your team.

Whilst saving money in removing training opportunities might seem like a quick fix for the cash flow, it will create longer term problems with reduced productivity which comes as a result of a disengaged workforce, and the even worse prospect of having great staff exit the business as a result of a lack of training and development opportunities.