TRAIN YOUR STAFF OR FALL BEHIND YOUR COMPETITION!

Why should you consider training your staff?
When your staff have the right skills to do the best job, your productivity and competitiveness improves. Trained staff improve their contribution in the workplace, have more confidence in their abilities and more pride in their skills. This leads to a better quality of service for your customers. An online training platform and elearning makes it easier and more affordable for you to improve the skill levels of your staff. It's a fact, a well-trained workforce can have a measurable impact on performance and the bottom line.

Businesses must keep changing their work practices and infrastructure to stay ahead of the competition, you must also keep up with the global marketplace, ensuring that your employees have the skills to cope with new technology and new markets, and have the skills specific to your own industries. And that means ensuring that staff training and development is high on the agenda.

Increased Productivity
Training staff to work more efficiently or effectively can increase their productivity rapidly. Employees may be lacking a skill or knowledge which in turn may increase the time they take to complete a task or even stop them undertaking it in the first place. Offering skills development will increase your employees confidence in their ability as well as increasing your productivity and in turn your profit. Studies show that training does have a positive impact on productivity, with some showing up to an 80% increase in productivity which can be attributed to training. (Source: DfES report - Review of Information on the Benefits of Training for Employers, 1997)

Improved Levels / Quality of Service
Training your employees in all areas can increase the level and quality of service your business offers. From answering the telephone efficiently, through customer service to sales, IT skills and sector specific skills, there is a wealth of training to ensure that your staff are competent and confident and reflect the image and quality of service you offer.

Increased Efficiency
There are several ways to increase the efficiency of your business, from the senior management to the junior staff. Increasing and adding to skills levels in your business can assist with processes, time management and deployment of staff for an effective operation. Training staff can also highlight where staff might be more effectively redeployed and can help to give you an in-depth picture of the skills and talents of your workforce.

Growth of the Business - Increase your Profit
Growing your business often means increasing your workforce. Training and skilling your employees to take on increased responsibility or additional skills may be a cheaper solution with a more defined outcome. Management training could be the perfect solution to your needs. Soft skills such as negotiation, management, supervision can support your business growth by investing in your existing employees. Investing in your workforce is the most valuable step you can take in managing and growing your business.

Increased staff retention and motivation
Training has been shown to increase staff retention, motivation and loyalty in many ways. Staff who benefit from training feel more empowered, feel valued by their employer and also are more likely to be satisfied by their work. Research has shown that training staff can reduce the probability of employees leaving their jobs, and thereby to increase the tenure of jobs. This provides re-assurance that the chances of workers being poached is not increased by offering them training, it is actually reduced! (Source: DfES report - Review of Information on the Benefits of Training for Employers, 1997)

Complying with the Law
The training you undertake may be necessary to comply with the law for Health and Safety purposes, as well as to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, Equal Opportunities Commission etc. Investing in training for your workforce will increase their confidence, performance at work and reflect on the success and growth of the business.
(Source: Learning & Skills Council - http://www.employersguidetotrainingproviders.co.uk/step1-2.asp )

Quick facts

• Skills gaps are holding back growth: over 30% of UK firms which have tried to move their business strategies forward have been constrained by gaps in workforce skills

• Jobs are becoming more complex: the proportion of jobs requiring no qualifications had fallen from 38% in 1986 to 27% in 2001

• New technology is changing the workplace: the number of jobs involving computing has risen from 50% in 1992 to over 75% today

• Too many workers have low skills: nearly 30% of the UK workforce does not have a level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 good GCSEs) compared with less than 20% in France and 15% in the US - this is particularly relevant if you want to compete internationally

How can training activity lead to improved business performance?

• Companies in the US investing between 3.5% and 4% of their total budgets on training out-performed companies with a below-average spend over a five year period

• UK companies with a high level of training are likely to grow at a faster rate and achieve above average profitability

• Increasing the proportion of employees trained by 5% is linked to a 4% increase in productivity in the UK

• 66% of employers involved in a Training programme in England felt it helped improve quality of service or production

(Source: NIACE - http://www.niace.org.uk/alw/2007/employers/benefits.htm )