Why do companies train their staff? Typically, it’s for practical purposes: to onboard new employees, keep up with the industrial standards, or even demonstrate how to use a new coffee maker. All these are crucial aspects of your organization-employee relationship. But in reality, most businesses aren’t conversant with the real significance of training their workforce and its measurable impact on the company.
Here are the top reasons to provide technology training to your team:
#1 Improved Productivity
Your company may have the
latest equipment, but what good is it if your staff doesn’t know how it works?
Training your team to use
a new application or machine means most of them will learn how to work faster and more effectively with
the new tool. As a result, they’ll complete more work with less struggle.
The National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce (EQW) conducted a study that showed that increasing the education level of the workforce was more effective at improving productivity than increasing the equipment value.
Specifically, a 10%
increase in these two aspects led to an 8.6% productivity increase for
education and only a 3.4% rise for upgraded equipment.
Besides, training provides workers with an opportunity to acquire a broader skillset. And once people have more skills, they are ready to solve work-related problems and be more productive. What’s more, well-trained employees evolve their expertise beyond a single skill, making them more adaptable to tasks outside their core roles.
Before purchasing a new
system or equipment, department heads should always consider what kind of
training will be required for the team to use the new tools, and what training
options are offered through the provider.
#2 Fewer Mistakes and Missed Opportunities or Deadlines
Well-trained employees are a vital asset to your organization. When you equip these people with all the education, knowledge, and skills they need, they’ll perform their tasks competently and accurately. And, the number of mistakes in your business will decline. That means no more data loss or improper data analysis.
Untrained and unhappy
workers who feel the company is underutilizing them are more likely to become
frustrated with their work. In other words, they’ll make numerous mistakes and
not attain the minimum standards.
Most managers often assume
that upskilling employees will prompt their workforce to look for new or better
opportunities in other organizations, but that isn’t true. Instead, proper
training makes employees feel valued
and happy with their roles and increases their loyalty to a company that
invests in their development.
Additionally, a position
that comes with training opportunities will most likely attract more
competitive candidates.
Excellent training makes
employees more competent at their duties, which reduces the time it takes to
find information as they’re busy working.
It also helps eliminate redundancy of effort where
workers are working slower or make errors because they're not familiar with the
tool. The time and money required to correct mistakes are also reduced when
workers have the know-how to perform the task correctly the first time.
#3 Reduced Chances of Costly IT Mistakes
Employee training provides
you with the opportunity to build risk management into every fiber of your
organization. This is especially important concerning data management and data
governance, as well as for deflecting common cybersecurity threats.
An employee who doesn’t
understand the features of a system could unintentionally delete enormous
amounts of valuable company data. This can have far-fetching implications for
your company.
First, it may not be
possible to retrieve it, which could spell doom for the business. Second, if
retrieval is possible, it usually comes with a hefty price. And during that
time, your business will come to a standstill and you’ll be losing even more
money by not serving clients or missing deadlines.
In other cases, employees
tampering with processes they don't fully understand can affect workflows or
other coworkers' reports. This leads to a number of problems. For example,
forecasting inaccuracies in the accounting department could create a ripple effect
that spreads through multiple departments.
In addition, you also risk
a violation of intellectual property or data protection regulations.
You can limit your
exposure to such hazards by creating data governance rules and policies that
will guide your employees on the best practices for using the system and the
data it holds.
If employees don’t use a
system or some of its features often, over time, they’ll forget what they’ve
learned in training. Create an internal knowledge base where you can make training
materials available for future reference.
#4 Reduced Need for Tech Support
Typically, your company’s
IT department handles pretty much every problem for employees. This approach
can overburden the IT department, as they must respond to every ticket that a
worker raises.
What if you trained employees so they’d understand the basics of PC maintenance, and fix some recurring issues on their own?
It would not only help
them work faster, but it would also
free up the time of the IT technicians
so they could focus on other essential aspects of the business, such as
updating software or conducting equipment maintenance.
#5 The Adaptability of the Team
Adaptability is a crucial human
skill that’s part of the essential soft skills that most employers seek.
Adaptability means that a worker should have the ability to respond quickly to
innovation, industry shifts, changing trends, and more.
Training your team on the
latest technology not only empowers them to move ahead of the curve in their
career but also helps them adapt faster
due to the growth mindset.
For example, if you train employees on how to use chatbots in customer service – to respond to customers’ questions quickly – they’ll easily adapt when it’s time to learn about using AI in lead generation.
Wrap Up
Employee training is
critical in every industry. Investing in this training might seem costly at
first, but the result is satisfying and rewarding.
Trained employees feel
valued and will do their best to work hard and stay loyal. And a happy
workforce can have a significant impact on your bottom line.