Training your staff is incredibly important, whether it’s a new employee or a manager that has been with your business for years. Members of staff need to feel like they are growing their skillset and are taking steps to progress in their career. By encouraging and implementing training in your small business environment, you will be able to retain good quality employees. Training your staff can also help you prepare for any skills gap that may become a problem due to Brexit.
Not every business will have enough money to upskill and train their workforce. However, there is a way for you to help train staff and help them gain additional skills on a budget. Here are some budget-friendly ways you can train your staff.
Keep it in the business
As a business owner, you will have staff that are experienced and have a wealth of skills that they have learnt in their career. Make sure that you are making the most out of your skilled staff. When it comes to helping your employees add to their skillset, encourage the experienced staff to teach the newcomers. This is a great way to get your staff to build their skill set. You could even create a mentorship programme within your business. You could pair an experienced staff member with one or two less experienced employees. They could have regular meetings and training sessions. This won’t cost your business any money, however, it may cost your business in terms of staff time.
Online courses and tutorials
There are a vast amount of free or very inexpensive courses and tutorials online. When it comes to finding the right one, make sure that you and your team are really getting something out of them. You don’t want to take several free online courses, and not actually learn from them or gain any new knowledge. Therefore, make sure you look at the benefits of each course, especially if you are paying a small fee for it.
There are tutorials on almost anything, and they can come in form of YouTube videos. YouTube videos can be a great way to pick up new skills for free. However, make sure that your team are focused on learning rather than watching cat videos.
It’s important to encourage a learning and educational environment in your workplace, where your employees want to learn and improve their skills. If they are self-motivated, they are more likely to benefit from any sort of training, which in turn is great for your business.
Train one person
If you are going to invest significant money on course, then consider sending the person who needs it the most, as well as somebody who can teach and pass on the skills learnt. It’s essential, that if you’re investing in learning that everyone benefits. If one person has gone through training, then it can be a great idea for them to deliver a course with all the employees that may benefit from the new information.
Value for money
Small businesses do not usually have big budgets for training staff, however training staff is essential for businesses of all sizes. Therefore, you will need to evaluate the value of the course to your employees and the business. If an employee who has been with your business for some time and has proven their worth to the business, you might want to invest them. Retaining good quality staff is incredibly important for small businesses, as the recruitment costs can be huge. So if the situation calls for it, make the investment.
Also, it will be better and more beneficial if you spend money on something that will truly benefit your business. Rather than spending small amounts of money on different courses that offer no real value.
More on staff management and training staff.
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