As a startup owner, you probably want to have the best of the best on your team. Finding highly motivated professionals is difficult enough, but keeping them is even more so. This is especially the case if you’re not willing to invest in their professional development. As your startup grows, it’s important for your employees to grow with it and to stay on top of emerging trends on the market. The best way to make this happen is by giving everyone on your team a chance to take part in employee training and development.
Orientation training
If your startup is in the process of hiring new team members, orientation training will help your recruits immensely. Not only is it helpful, but it can also be said that recruits must be successful in their new job. There are different methods you can implement, but the simplest ones include handbooks and lectures. As handy as these methods are, by far the most successful one is one-on-one training. On the other hand, it’s also the slowest and the costliest one. Still, when you have someone working closely with your new employees, you can rest assured that the new person will learn much faster and have better results.
Having a mentor/instructor
Mentors and instructors are not only for new team members. They are highly skilled professionals who can educate others no matter how experienced your team members might be. Most often, they are highly skilled in one particular area, but more importantly, they are able to share this knowledge with others. Not every skilled and experienced individual makes a good mentor – sometimes people simply can’t share their knowledge no matter how long they have been working. When looking for a good mentor, always look for someone who has experience in instructing and teaching. They will be able to convey their knowledge in a much better way and will often do a sort of test at the end of their lecture to make sure that everyone understood the material they prepared.
Cross-training
Cross-training employees is a bit atypical because it’s about enabling them to do work that’s outside their job description. While some might be surprised by this type of training, it’s incredibly effective and useful. Cross-training will allow your employees to perform a wide set of duties and make them more skilled and more aware of some aspects of their job they didn’t pay attention to before. For example, a cashier that knows customer service will have a better performance, and a marketer who was cross-trained in graphic design can do more work on his own. Cross-trained employees are extremely valuable, so make sure to provide them with the best trainers and materials. You can partner up with professionals such as Compliant Learning and find the best resources for your team.
Online learning
Over the last couple of years, online employee training has become extremely popular. Not only because it allows people to keep learning from the comfort of their homes, but also because it gives them a chance to pick their own pace. With eLearning, your employees won’t struggle to keep up with their lecturer nor will they have to travel to a different location in order to attend the lecture. As an employer who provides such a learning opportunity, you will be glad because you will save a lot of money on travel and accommodation expenses as well. These days, eLearning platforms and programs are easily accessible as well as easy to handle, so your employees can listen to lectures, watch videos, and take tests without having to leave their homes.
Why should you do it
While you might be worried that your highly-skilled and well-trained employees will leave you after training, it’s not as likely as you fear. LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report shows that an astonishing 94% of all interviewed employees would want to stay longer working for a startup that decided to invest in their careers. Employees who continue to learn, train, and develop their skills feel more valued and are willing to put more effort into their job. Not only that, but they are willing to stay with a startup that provides such learning opportunities. As an added bonus – having empowered and well-educated employees with a great set of skills will ensure that your startup remains competitive in today’s market.
It doesn’t matter if you’re thinking about recruiting new employees or keeping the old ones happy – when you give them a chance to learn, grow, and develop their existing set of skills, they will be more likely to stay with you in the future. Not only will your employee training elevate their skills, but they will also perform their tasks better and faster, thus helping your startup grow in the process. With employee training and development, you are also securing a better future for your startup.
Mike is an Australian business consulting specialist. He’s working with companies that outsource their IT maintenance. He often writes about technology, business and marketing and is a regular contributor on several websites.
