Simple tips for training employees more efficiently

At a small business, owners often face a great deal of turnover with employees. This ultimately leads to a hiring pattern that cycles in new workers that need to learn how the company works, the culture behind the way things are run and what processes absolutely need to become routine. To this end, training employees to function efficiently can be a great benefit to your operations and save time for other more important things like branding your business. On the flip side, having inefficiently trained employees ultimately leads to time-consuming and potentially costly mistakes. Here are some tips for more effective training of employees.

Skills are more valued than traits
Although employees are often hired on desired traits and appealing qualities, the fact of the matter is that skills are more important to a company. Inc. Magazine recommends focusing on this in the training process as well by imparting skills instead of trying to alter a person’s innate traits. For instance, if an employee is naturally introverted, trying to force him or her to become more extroverted for your company’s sake will likely be unproductive and result in negative backlash from them. Instead, focus on pinpointing specific skills that could still fit within that personality framework. Leverage his or her introversion into a related skill, such as listening actively.

Learn consistently and continuously
Many businesses often think that once an employee has been parsed through the hiring and training process, they are ready to take on clients. By not training regularly and constantly providing new material and skills to be adopted, entrepreneurs are missing an opportunity to remain on the cutting edge.

“[Continuous learning] is very important,” Diana O’Brien, managing principal at Deloitte University, told FOX Small Business. “There are always new things for professionals to learn and the rate of change in the business world demands new skills, fresh perspectives and new ideas.”

Measurements leads to results
Just as small business owners seek high returns on investment (ROI) with their revenues, so should they for their employees undergoing training. Inc. recommends instituting skill-based metrics. Employees are more apt to fully integrate a particular skill into their day-to-day performance if there are metrics produced that can effectively track their progress in doing so. Additionally, this lets owners know how effective their training procedures are going.

Scroll to Top