Why Should I Train my Employees? They’ll Just Leave!

Many business owners view training as a cost rather than an  investment.  They see the time away from  work, and often are disappointed with the results because there is little or no change.  And sometimes, employees do leave shortly after the owner has made a major investment in training.

So why should you train? And, more importantly, how do you ensure that the training “sticks” and is applied on the job?  Consider the following points:

• If the worker is not properly trained to do the job, performance will be less than optimal. This is especially true of new hires. Yes, they may have the requisite skills, but do they know what your expectations are, and what outstanding performance looks like?  They may not need formal classroom training, but they most certainly need on-the-job coaching and information.
• Ask yourself, what is the cost of not training?  Are you willing to accept mediocre performance?  How will that impact your business?
• While some employees are perfectly content to do the same job the same way year after year, routine also breeds mediocrity.  What are you doing to make sure your employees are able to deal with a challenging business environment and make a real contribution?  (If you need an example of the changed business landscape, just think Social Media.)

Thus, the wise business owner works with employees to identify  gaps and opportunities for growth.  When the employee understands why they are receiving training and how they are expected to apply it on the job they will be more invested and less likely to leave.    And, consider training for yourself.  If you are eager to learn and apply what you learn, your employees will be too.

Sharon Hamersley is Principal of Keys to Performance, Your Resource for Workplace Productivity.  For more information, visit her web site http://k2performance.net or call her at 614-395-9440.

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Training! We Need Training!

When I worked in corporate Learning and Development, I got many requests for training. Any time there was an issue where someone was not doing the job, the immediate “answer” was to provide training. One request I remember was to develop training on filling out a departmental form. People were not filling out the form so, of course, they needed to be trained to do that. The problem is…that really would not have fixed the problem. By asking the following questions it became clear that a different solution was needed:

• Do people know they need to fill out the form? (Yes)
• Have they filled out the form in the past? (Yes, sometimes)
• Do they have all the information at hand needed to fill out the form? (Yes)
• Is it easy to fill out the form? (No, it’s confusing…that’s why we need training!)

So what was the real issue here? Should you train people to fill out a confusing form, or should you work with them to clarify the form so that it’s easy to fill out? I suggested that before we develop training, the manager should ask a few people in the department to look at the form and suggest ways to make it easier to fill out. The result…a revised form that made it very easy to collect and record the needed information. It was beta-tested by the department and once implemented, resulted in a 100% compliance rate for completing the form.

Conclusion: training may or may not solve your performance problem. Ask questions about what is really happening before investing the time and money needed to develop and implement training. Your bottom line will thank you for it.

Sharon Hamersley is Principal of Keys to Performance, Your Resource for Workplace Productivity. Sharon helps businesses hire, train and retain outstanding employees and create workplaces where everyone can do their best work. For more information, visit her web site http://k2performance.net or call her at 614-395-9440.