Guest Blogger: Margo Thomas, Marlynn Consulting
I recently had a discussion with a business owner about the benefits of training his team. One of his concerns was, “what happens if I go through the expense of training an employee and he/she leaves?” This is a common dilemma for a business that is considering skilled training for its team.
There are a number of advantages for a company pursuing periodic training of its team. This post will provide three of those benefits.
Reduced turnover – A business that promotes skilled training may retain its employees longer than a business that chooses not to train its team. Employees are more likely to remain with an employer if there are opportunities to learn new skills and keep up with industry trends. Likewise, an employee may feel valued and appreciated by his employer’s willingness to invest in him, which may lead to higher job satisfaction. In many cases, higher job satisfaction also results in reduced turnover and higher productivity.
Increased efficiency – Training allows employees to learn skills, techniques and tricks to help them complete everyday tasks more efficiently. As a former Project Manager, the ability to manipulate an Excel worksheet using “sorting” or “add” functions in Excel allowed my team to process incentive claims in a timely manner. This resulted in more claims being processed in a shorter period of time.
Another example of how employee productivity may increase as a result of training is in the case of a manufacturing company that purchased a new machine to replace an older one. The new equipment may increase the company’s production from the 100 widgets per day produced by the older machine to 150 widgets. Having the employees properly trained on the new equipment may reduce the number of errors made, which consequently will result in more widgets being available for sale.
Increased revenue – Using the example above, if the business increases its production it will likely decrease the amount of time required to fill an order. If the business is able to produce a larger amount of its widgets in a shorter time–frame, it has an opportunity to increase the number of orders it fills. Ultimately, this will result in an increase in the amount of revenue the business earns because it can cater to a greater number of customers.
Here’s something to think about: If you decided there is no need to periodically train your team that decision may lead to an increase in employee turnover, a decrease in productivity and possibly a decrease in revenues. The question then becomes, “how can a company grow without training its team?”
Brief Background about Margo:
Margo Thomas is the owner of Marlynn Consulting, where she helps businesses get funding from the State to help minimize the cost of employee skills upgrade training. She has worked with Florida economic incentives on behalf of the State for ten years and has assisted in confirming over 50,000 Florida jobs and recommending over $200 million in tax credits and refunds.
Margo i totally agree with the blog i believe all business places and business minded people should want to increase the morale of their employees thru continuos training thus enhancing work productivity! keep up the good work my friend!
Great article Mrs. Thomas!
An excellent article!
Training is vital to the success of any company and should include the employer, management and employees. Training should be done on a consistent basis to maintain a company’s competitive edge. Training encompasses many topics execution of process, knowledge of company policies, customer service, technology/innovation, pricing, etc. What if an employee leaves? I would rather invest on training an employee regardless of their employment longevity to insure the employee is performing pursuant to the company’s and customer’s expectations. Having an untrained employee is much riskier and can be much more costly which can hurt a company’s brand.
Thanks everyone for your comments. Gloria, I totally agree with you that an untrained employee is far more riskier than being concerned about the employee leaving. The benefits they contribute while they are employed with you often exceed the risks.