The importance of training

When it comes to building a successful company, you need to begin with the training of your employees. If you don't give your employees enough training, they will be unable to handle all of their job responsibilities and different situations that will arise in the workplace. Taking more than a week or two to train your employees is one of the best ways to give them enough training so they can become a successful employee.

A common problem company's see is that they train their employees and they assume that their training process is perfect. They don't take the time to follow up with employees to find out if the training has been able to help their employees do their jobs and they don't often look upon training as a reason for employee turnover.

If you aren't sure if your training procedures are working, take a look at some of the defects and issues within the company. Do you notice that you continue to have a lot of turnover? Taking a look at your training procedures may be the problem instead of looking at other issues. The training procedures you use must be connected to the mission and vision of your company and sometimes companies just focus on the little details that are needed to perform a certain job. When this happens, your employees lose focus on the purpose of their job and it can be difficult for them to believe in their job and have a desire to come to work each day.

Some of the things you need to address include equipment needs, language needs, staffing problems, and personal needs. As you step back and look upon the bigger picture, it can be easier to identify where training is lacking so you can start increasing your training efforts. Let's focus on some of the top training needs:

Equipment needs
As you train your employees, you will need to teach them how to use the equipment that keeps your company running. This will include everything from software programs to machines. It is important to look at the equipment your employees are going to be working with so you can update it if it is starting to give them problems. Old equipment can cause a number of problems and it can be frustrating if you have been trained on new equipment and you are being asked to work with the old equipment.

Language needs
A helpful training tool you may need to look into is finding out if learning a second language will help your employees do their job better. No matter what profession you may be in, the language barrier can cause a handful of problems for your employees. Ask them if they would like to learn a second language and take it upon yourself to teach them a second language or hire a language tutor to come in and give your employees a crash course in a second language. Even if they aren't fluent in the second language, it can help them out from time to time when they are dealing with customers and clients that speak that language.

Staffing problems
Part of your training program should address the staffing needs of the organization. If the employee you are training is going to fill several roles, they need to know this and you need to make sure you have some good staff members around them that can help and support them in this difficult new role. Throwing one person into a job and asking them to perform 3 other jobs at the same time is not fair to anyone, no matter how much schooling and previous work experience they have.

Personal needs
As you begin the training process, take time to evaluate this person and look for ways to cater to their personal needs. Even doing something as small as adding extra cups to the kitchen will be appreciated by your employees. When you make that small extra effort, it will not go unnoticed.