We have been looking at reasons to outsource your HR over the last few weeks and covered the areas of : –
- Staying on the right side of employment law
- Saving time
- Saving money
- Hiring the right people
- Growth and Strategy
Fitting nicely with your growth and strategy we talked about workforce planning which may result in a skills gap and training and upskilling is one method to fill those gaps.
Staff training and development are broad terms that can cover several types of employee learning. Training generally refers to a training programme that will provide employees with new skills and knowledge. Development on the other hand focuses on employee growth and performance long-term.
Your best employees will want to grow
One option is to develop your existing staff. There’s a common saying “What happens if we train them and they leave?” However, a response could be “What happens if we don’t train them and they stay?”
Motivated staff will take advantage of development and training opportunities to grow in their role and step up with new skills.
You may also have staff who want to contribute to areas outside of their job description. Some people have other skills or aspirations outside of their normal day-to-day role. A member of your finance team with great attention to detail may make fantastic proofreaders or have marketing experience. If you tap into these skills it can really boost your business and sometimes save hiring external consultants or additional members of staff.
Development options?
We don’t always have to send employees on external training courses, development can take place internally with other members of staff.
Have you thought about the following development options?
Mentoring – you could create mentor relationships that can benefit both the employee and the mentor. The employee will learn to reflect, improve goal-setting and increase self-awareness, the mentor will gain useful skills as a leader, become a good listener, increase job satisfaction and feel valued by the company.
Share external training – if an employee attends a training programme, seminar or conference they can create some learning material for other employees to benefit or possibly a presentation, gaining from teaching and presenting.
Regular in-house training – these could be in house ‘lunch & learn’ sessions on smaller topics, product knowledge, IT skills or a specialist subject
Shadowing – employees can learn from others work where you may identify a high performer in a particular topic or shadowing for a new role or task.
Projects and one-off work – employees could work on a particular project to expose them to different tasks and team members. Rotate the chairing of team meetings to provide employees with a different experience and level of contribution to meetings.
To name but a few ideas!
Why upskill?
There are specific benefits from providing upskilling in your business including improving your employee retention; increasing customer satisfaction, happy employees are more likely to provide a great service to your customers; and help your bottom line. It’s expensive to lose and replace your talented staff.
Design and support personal development plans for your staff as part of your performance management process. Your employees may be best placed to identify what skills and competencies they require rather than being told – they are more likely to be committed and engaged in the learning.
Any support or questions?
If you would like to speak to someone about training and upskilling in your business please contact us.
Outsourced HR Company – Support Services & Advice – HR Dept Bishop’s Stortford and Halstead CM6 1WZ
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