In an ever changing and fast paced corporate world, training and development is an indispensable function.
Training and development is one of the lowest things on the priority list of most companies. When it’s organized, it is often at the persistence of the human resources department. There is, however, enormous value in organizing proper training and development sessions for employees. Training allows employees to acquire new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity and be better leaders. Since a company is the sum total of what employees achieve individually, organizations should do everything in their power to ensure that employees perform at their peak.
Here are a few reasons that demonstrate the importance of training and development.
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New Hire Orientation
Training is particularly important for new employees. This can be conducted by someone within the company and should serve as a platform to get new employees up to speed with the processes of the company and address any skill gaps.
Tackle shortcomings
Every individual has some shortcomings and training and development helps employees iron them out. For example, at Clarionttech we have divided the entire headcount in several groups to provide focused training which is relevant to those groups – sales training, first time managers, middle management, senior leadership, executive leadership.
Improvement in performance
If shortcomings and weaknesses are addressed, it is obvious that an employee’s performance improves. Training and development, however, also goes on to amplify your strengths and acquire new skill sets. It is important for a company to break down the training and development needs to target relevant individuals. If I can draw examples from my organization, every department has targeted training groups. These generally revolve around product development training, QA training, PMP among others where internal and external process experts facilitate various programs.
Employee satisfaction
A company that invests in training and development generally tends to have satisfied employees. However, the exercise has to be relevant to the employees and one from which they can learn and take back something. It will be futile if training and development become tedious and dull, and employees attend it merely because they have to. As a company, we stress on industry specific training and send many employees for international seminars and conferences that can be beneficial to them.
Increased productivity
In a rapidly evolving landscape, productivity is not only dependent on employees, but also on the technology they use. Training and development goes a long way in getting employees up to date with new technology, use existing ones better and then discard the outdated ones. This goes a long way in getting things done efficiently and in the most productive way.
Self driven
Employees who have attended the right trainings need lesser supervision and guidance. Training develops necessary skill sets in employees and enable them to address tasks independently. This also allows supervisors and management to focus on more pressing areas.
To transform our company into a learning organization and encourage a culture of continual learning among employees, we have launched a training and development initiative called ‘Productivity Train’. We call it lighthouse, as it symbolizes strength, guidance and direction. We conduct various in-house training sessions on knowledge-building and skills & process.
The network facilitates various training sessions, based on experiential learning methodologies. We have also engaged renowned experts like.
Training and development programs can have a huge impact on a company. Like every other function in your company, training and development should be focused on producing targeted and tangible results for the business. The key is to treat it seriously and consider it a capital investment and make it results-driven.
