Staff Training and Development: Is it Worth the Time and Costs?

Companies don't always see staff training and professional development as a priority. What they don't see is these activities don't just keep their employees' skill consistent, they also boost job satisfaction and productivity. 

When employees feel their company is invested in their careers, they are more likely to stay longer and work harder too. Staff training may not be cheap, but the benefits outweighs the negatives. 

These 5 tips will tell you why staff training is worth the investment, and some cost-friendly ways to do it:

1. Turn Staff Training into a Regular Activity

Companies should identify knowledge gaps and organise training programs that suits an employee's working schedule. It's better to conduct weekly or bi-monthly training sessions compared to a single 5-hour session.

This will encourage consistency among employees, which improves knowledge retention and promotes a pro-learning corporate culture.

Through regular sessions, trainers can review and give feedback based on real job performance to keep the programme on track and relevant. Employers can also properly measure the progression of the staff training programme during the performance review.

2. Cross-train Your Employees

Cross-training grants staff with new skills and opens up flexibility within the company which improves employee retention numbers. Cross-training is also an good time to invite staff to become trainers for mentoring opportunities.

Your staff are the only ones who know the requirements and demands of their roles, therefore they should be able to accurately impart that to colleagues.

Regular training sessions encourage consistency among employees.

3. Include Older Staff in Staff Training

Investing in training older staff can actually be fruitful. An employee at 50 has clocked in more than twenty years of work experience and skills ahead of a new graduate. However with average retirement ages increasing, a 50-year-old employee would probably be looking at another decade in the workforce. Investing in training acknowledges and affirms their value to the company.

You can also put their experience in the workforce to good use and have them mentor younger staff. The knowledge they can share is far beyond what any corporate trainer can.

4. Learn from Mistakes

Use the shortcomings from your competitors as case studies during staff training. The costly mistakes of another company can help your staff be more aware of the dangers and avoid them in the future.

Don’t limit the learning to a specific failed product or campaign, use the issue as the starting point for dialogues on crisis management and other relevant issues across other departments.

You can also use this as an opportunity to help different departments get better acquainted with each other’s work functions or to exchange ideas.

5. Level up Your Managers

Managerial staff training can take a two-pronged strategy: technical training & soft-skills training. Managerial staff might not be as technically skilled as their teams, but they must somewhat have basic knowledge of the technical know-how in order to lead more effectively.

Managers are the most direct leaders’ staff meet on a daily basis and it takes a great manager to inspire high productivity yet keep staff happy and motivated. It is also possible to upgrade an average manager into an excellent one with soft-skills training. Examples of soft-skills training include communication, coaching, and conflict management.

Staff training is worth the investment. Continual training, education, and coaching for employees is crucial for companies to maintain progression. It’s also a great opportunity for all levels across the company to maintain existing skills or create new ones.

Invest in your staff training programmes now, and harvest the benefits for a long time to come. This article is adapted from Robert Half's article "Is staff training really worth the time and costs?" 

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