You’ll Want to Have a Training Plan to Improve Your Employees’ Skills

When businesses onboard new employees, they typically have a series of qualifications they need applicants to meet in order to get to the interview process. Once they interview and are chosen from a list of applicants, the new hire does his/her entrance training and then it’s time to get to work. If your business doesn’t have the right training platforms in place, however, this process can take a lot longer than you’d like. This month, we thought we’d take a bit to go over this process and how getting the right training protocols in place upfront can have a positive effect on the way your new employees hit the ground running.

Education vs. Experience

We’ll start during the hiring process. Many of today’s businesses hire people that completed at least an Associates degree program at an accredited college or trade school. On the surface this is fine, but what many organizations find out is that by choosing candidates by their educational background rather than their work experience, they’ll need to have a more strenuous and comprehensive training program in place. This is because many college programs, while teaching fundamental skills, don’t always provide on-the-job skills needed to effectively solve problems. Additionally, hiring people right out of college can sometimes come with higher salary demands, as many students are saddled with large swaths of student loan debt and are just looking for a way to more effectively pay back their loans. In fact, studies have shown that people who have graduated from college since 2010 have averaged four job changes in their first nine years. 

Training is costly for any business, and the more a new hire needs to learn before actually being able to successfully do a job, the less value an organization will see from them. When choosing a new hire it is important to remember that payroll is a major consideration and having people that can do the job in the least amount of time is a huge benefit for the organization’s bottom line. 

Types of Training

That’s not to say that training isn’t mandatory for every employee. Every company has their own way of operating, so that means most times new employees aren’t going to be just tossed into the fire without going through some type of training. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of training that new hires typically go through.

Orientation

Every single business has an orientation schedule. Basically, it is a short training schedule that provides knowledge about the company, the expectations of said company, and what their position is responsible for. Most orientation programs aren’t more than a day or two and are typically effective at getting their human resources situation squared away and to effectively welcome them to the company. 

Onboarding

Onboarding is the task of training new employees in their specific job. This could be as simple as taking them through the software that the company uses, and be as complex as cross training people so that they have a thorough understanding of what everyone at the company does. To get new hires up to speed as quickly as possible, the onboarding process typically involves several members of the operational staff and can last anywhere from a couple hours to several months depending on the job.

Mandatory

This type of training is typically dictated by the state/country in which the company does business. Some are dictated by federal mandates, while others are put in place by industry regulators. Many times these programs are put in place so employees understand the health and safety regulations and as new legislation is passed, more training is added. 

Operational Skills

Skills training is designed to improve an employee’s ability to do the work, or to better understand how the company works operationally. This process is typically broken down into soft skills training and technical skills training. Soft skills training is designed to improve an employee’s ability to interact with others; and, work within the confines of the company’s rules. These include:

• Presentation and communication
• Problem solving
• Conflict resolution
• Time management
• Collaboration
• Emotional intelligence
• Adaptability

There have been a lot of studies that show that soft skills training of some sort can mitigate problems and risk for businesses and new hires, alike. 

Technical skills training on the other hand is used to improve an employee’s ability to do their job proficiently. The better employees are at fulfilling their core work responsibilities, the better the company will function. 

Security

Security, specifically cybersecurity, is a more important consideration today than ever before. This is because there are more threats with more avenues of attack. Training your staff on the best practices of cybersecurity can be time consuming and expensive for companies, but that cost typically pales in comparison to the cost of a data breach. 

Some of the things the typical employee will be trained in are password hygiene, how to spot phishing attempts and other scams, best practices of using mobile devices outside of the office, and just the proficiency of being a secure user on a professional business network. Protecting digital assets is extremely important, especially now with more sensitive information on file about employees, customers, vendors, as well as intellectual property. Having a comprehensive security training plan in place is a must for any business that relies on their IT.

At Washington Works, we know how to help our clients set up their training initiatives and do the things they need to do to prioritize data and network security. Call our IT professionals at 301-571-5040 today to learn more.