Why Training is Important

Article Author: By Jeff Wolf Training is crucial to your company’s future, as it creates a pipeline of talent that positions your company for success It motivates employees by sending a strong message about their worth to the organization. It creates enthusiasm and improves work quality and morale. Finally, it boosts productivity. Trained employees are always more productive. When Jack Welch was CEO of GE, he regularly trained employees at the company’s training facilities in Crotonville, NY. He shared his knowledge and turned GE into a culture where learning is valued. Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, also went into the classroom and taught. Before Roger Enrico took the reins at Pepsi, he personally trained many of his people. Training enables employees to reach their optimum potential. If you fail to take it seriously, your employees won’t have any respect for it. Even in tough economic times, you must make training a priority and budget for it. Some managers may balk at your efforts to train staff. They’ll say, “We can’t take people away from their day-to-day work for training. We’ll lose productivity.” Nonsense! If managers believe their people cannot benefit from training, perhaps they should be replaced. Ask people how they learn best. So many companies will hire a new employee and place him or her in front of a computer on his or her first day of work. They train this unlucky hire by saying, “You’re going to go through the slides, do this and then do that, and after the training we’ll put you to work.” This doesn’t qualify as training. Some people can’t learn in front of a computer. People have different facilities for learning: oral, visual, perhaps tactile. People learn best through one of these three approaches, but you can’t arbitrarily select one over another. Make training an everyday affair, a day-to-day activity. This is a simple approach that doesn’t require a formal classroom setting. Often, all you need to do is ask, “How are things going today?” The employee may give you cues that indicate a training session is required, and it needn’t be formal. And keep in mind that in some training sessions, employees may not pick up something they can use immediately, but it’s a concept or skill that can help them down the road. Highly effective leaders train, motivate, build, empower, and retain an optimal high-performing, creative and innovative team by investing wisely in people. Develop, recognize, reward, and promote from within. Keep on board a high-performing team. Great leaders create more leaders at all levels by nurturing their development. They don’t just delegate work, they delegate decision-making powers. When people have the authority to make certain decisions, they feel more responsible and loyal. So empower your people. Don’t micromanage them—turn them loose to perform their jobs. Explain the task, tell them what needs to be done and why, but don’t tell them how to do it. Then they’ll take ownership, accept accountability, think creatively and offer ideas. When they feel you value their ideas, they’ll find ways to boost performance.