Skillsets are one of the most important factors in a company’s ability to stay afloat. Your business’s profits will increase as a result of investing in employee training and development.
The importance of employee training and development, as well as how to go about it, are discussed in this article.
But first…
What is employee training and development?
As a concept, it represents a company’s ongoing efforts in providing its employees with learning opportunities. Many companies invest in employee training and development mainly to improve the performance of their employees.
Employee “training” vs “development”
Many people use training and development as synonyms in common speech. However, the scope of the activity is one way to differentiate the terms.
In “training”, the learning activities are focused on specific measurable goals in performing certain tasks based on the employee’s current role(s). In contrast, “development” encompasses a wide range of skills that are applicable outside of a person’s area of specialization. Skills like decision making, customer service and communication are part of employee development. Staff development is absolutely essential to a company’s long-term success and growth.
Why should you invest in employee training and development?
- Address gaps in knowledge and skills
It’s not uncommon for a company to have knowledge gaps. An effective training program can fill in the gaps and expand the employee’s knowledge base.
- Improve employees performance
Staff can perform their duties more confidently and efficiently if they receive regular training.
- Improve profitability
A company’s output can be multiplied by using fewer resources when tasks are completed with little or no errors and within the timeframes allotted.
- Foster innovation and creativity
It is possible for employees to come up with innovative ideas as a result of employee training and development. An innovative business can stay ahead of the competition with fresh ideas.
5. Improve company reputation
In the community, a business with a reputation for providing training and development opportunities for its employees gains a positive brand image. Jobseekers, in particular those looking to advance their skills, are more likely to be attracted to such businesses.
Types of employee training and development:
The below list is by no means exhaustive, there are many types of training that businesses can utilize depending on their nature of operations. The below are some of the common types of training and development activities.
• Technical training: These are based on a technical product or task and often need to be tailored to a particular job or skill-set.
• Soft skills training: Unlike technical skills, soft skills include skills such as creativity, communication, and teamwork among others.
• Compliance training: Involves training employees to understand and comply with laws or policies in the specific sector. It may also include topics that are not sector-specific such as cybersecurity and sexual harassment.
• Safety training: While safety is stipulated by laws governing workplace safety, we like to give this its own space given its importance on improving health and safety at workplaces. Workplace safety has an impact on the employees, the customers, and the business as a whole.
Many accidents at workplaces can be prevented with training and appropriate safety equipment. Contact us for your safety equipment as KitchenSpot is now a distributor of the Portwest brand in Tanzania, a global leader in safety equipment.
• Management and Leadership development; Organized to enable members of the management teams to be effective managers and developers of talent where areas such as accountability, collaboration, and communication can be covered. Efforts can also be invested in growing individual leadership capacities through activities such as mentoring and coaching job rotation and learning events to develop the knowledge and skills required to lead.
• Customer-centered training: Customer-related training focuses on training employees on acceptable behaviors and service strategies to enable them to provide exceptional customer service and education to customers.
• Employee orientation training: This enables businesses to equip new employees with the knowledge and skills that they will need to succeed at their jobs
Have you met our team? We are proud to introduce some of our team members. Check out our team’s profiles to learn more about us.
What are the modes of employee training and development?
It is possible to categorize training methods in a variety of ways. In this article, we’re going to divide them based on the training method used.
- Orientation: Critical for new employees where a new employee is trained to gain an understanding of the business and specific details about their role.
- Presentations/ Lectures: These are ideal for imparting knowledge to a large group of employees at the same time.
- Job Rotations: Swapping roles among the employees allowing them to learn from other employees in-house.
- Apprenticeships: Great for building leaders from within the team. This gives existing employees a chance to shadow and learn new skills from a more qualified member of the team.
- Team building activities: Group exercises that are geared to grow professional skills, such as effective communications and efficiency. Activities can be run by an in-house HR professional, although many employers prefer to recruit experienced team-building consultants
Other modes of employee training and development include organized activities such as mentoring and coaching and case studies; or it can be as simple as having a well-stocked library of written or audiovisual educational materials such as training guides, manuals, policy documents, user guides, and more.
Where to start?
Employer training and development should focus on the employee’s needs in serving both the customer and business.
The following are the three main steps in developing a training program once a business goal has been identified:
- Analyze skills gaps: Consider your business goals to determine which skills will help you reach your goals and fill in the gaps. Check to see if there are any skills that could be used to rectify the issues. In addition to technical/job-specific skills, there may be gaps in customer-oriented and/or soft skills. Discovering skills gaps is crucial for selecting appropriate training and will also save money by avoiding retraining in skills that employees already possess.
- Build your program: Whether done internally or with the help of training and development professionals, use the gaps identified above to determine the best method, or combination of methods to reach your training goals.
- Evaluate Impact: An ongoing evaluation is required to determine whether or not the training or development was successful. Consider changing your training method or adjusting your program if the results are not satisfactory over time.
Summary
Employee training and development is not a one-size-fits-all investment. If you are designing a training program for your company, you need to consider your training needs and the cost of the program for the long-run.
Most businesses will agree that the cost of not training is higher than the cost of doing it.
Business owners and HR professionals will benefit from investing in training by having a strong and skilled workforce that can take on challenging tasks using fewer resources and supervision.
About Us
KitchenSpot is an experienced hospitality servicing company based in Tanzania, respected for its ability to provide the widest and highest quality range of goods in the region and meeting every consumer demand. Check out our digital brochure to learn more about us.
