In recent years, there have been many new developments. With each new development, new domains have emerged. Domains like digital marketing and cloud computing that didn’t exist previously are now mainstream.
Accompanying some of these new developments are new regulations like personal data protection and personal privacy. Companies need to be ready for all these changes.
Training can help organisations to be ready. Through training, employees can quickly fill knowledge gaps and be effective contributors to your organisation. An organisation that doesn’t invest in training will not be ready to face the challenges in the market. They might even find themselves going the way of the dinosaurs eventually.
Still not convinced about the benefits of training? Do read below to understand the key benefits.
#1 Develop Awareness
One of the primary and key benefits of training is awareness.
Training can bring about awareness in many ways. For example, training can help employees learn new skills and knowledge that can help them better understand their work and the world around them.
Training can also help employees develop a new level of self-awareness of things to do and things to avoid doing.
Finally, training helps employees develop organizational awareness by understanding the goals of their organization. This can lead to increased collaboration and communication between employees, as well as improved performance and efficiency in the workplace.
Thus, awareness is the first and most important thing training brings to the table. From there, all improvement begins.
#2 Increase effectiveness
Things are evolving rapidly – customers are getting sophisticated and competitors are getting more innovative and aggressive. To be able to compete in the market, being effective executors is essential.
For example, in business-to-business sales, being able to present well can get you to the next meeting with someone higher within the organisation. At the customer service end of things, a negative customer can be converted into an advocate.
The above are just two examples of how things can improve or even turn in your favor with employee training.
#3 Prevent things from breaking down
Things break down when people are ill-equipped to deal with situations. In every break down, there will be consequences and repercussions. There could be repercussions in customer or management dissatisfaction, reduce productivity or even unwanted media exposure.
Little incidents can quickly escalate if not properly handled. Customer dissatisfaction can quickly find its way to social media. Hence, training is essential to prevent things from breaking down. Training can also prevent mistakes from ever happening again.
#4 Raise standards
Training sets a company apart from being mediocre.
Deliberate, and constant training can radically improve employees’ understanding of company objectives and help to raise and set standards of performance. If an organisation do not invest in training their employees, they can’t expect their people to get to the next level. That’s why some companies stay small or have to continually waste time addressing the same issues and problems over and over again.
#5 Improve customer experience
When clients experience consistent top-notch service, they will keep coming back.
Top-notch service can be achieved through training, and deploying sound procedures. Without proactively addressing issues through training, you’ll lose clients that might otherwise be saved. With training, standardized client interaction and sound follow-up procedures, you are constantly building better client relationships that will lead to repeat business and referrals.
#6 Be a competitive advantage
Training can be a competitive advantage.
With improved standards brought about by training, customers can expect better service over a competitor who does not invest in training.
With staff having attended training, they can make a difference and are in a better place to put a smile on a customer’s face. Customers are more likely to come back to you over a business that does not know how to take care of them.
#7 Increase revenue
Quality training is guaranteed to make you money.
For example, training your frontline team (i.e. sales, customer support) can help them handle any situation that may occur in a client engagement. Arm them with the necessary mindset to deal with customers’ complaints and objections effectively. They can turn a bad situation into a good one. This could result in more sales and referrals.
#8 Save expenses
Training can also help you save money.
Educating employees on certain must-dos can avert downtime, mishaps, avoid penalties and fines etc.. Training can get employees to toe the line and be compliant and more self-aware.
In today’s privacy-conscious world, do not skip any training in compliance because failing to comply with privacy regulations like PDPA can result in severe penalties.
#9 Retain talent
Training also saves you money through reduced employee turnover. The cost of hiring and training a new employee is high. Also, there is the uncertainty of whether the person can quickly learn the ropes and fit into your company’s culture.
So employee retention is a key consideration in maintaining continuous performance and growth for an organisation. When employees know exactly what to do and are empowered to do so, they feel more confident in executing their tasks to meet performance standards. Employees also feel less stress for now they are equipped with better knowledge of what to do, instead of figuring things out themselves.
With organized and regular training programs, employees will feel your company is willing to invest in them to help them grow. Most people would appreciate a progressive company, rather than one who is not.
Conclusion
Training needs to be part of a company’s culture. It should be looked upon as an investment rather than a cost. Trying to save money on training will cost you more in the future through reduced productivity, loss of customers, penalties from regulators etc.
The quicker an employee is trained, the quicker you will reap the dividends (i.e. increased performance, protection against regulators and cyberattacks, etc.) of your investment.
If you need any training in the areas of sales, cybercriminals and personal data protection, do not hesitate to reach out to us.
