Importance of Corporate Training for Small Businesses

The following is a guest post.

Owning a small business is like running a hurdle race… only that it feels more like a marathon than a 400 meter sprint. What I am trying to say here is that small businesses face many challenges from finding the right employees to struggling with customer issues.

One of the problems that many small businesses face is having the resources to train their staff. While big corporates have entire training teams dedicated for this purpose, not many small businesses have the cash reserves required to impart corporate training to their employees.

But corporate training is one of the most important aspects of employee development and has various benefits for businesses of all sizes – big or small. Corporate training is defined as any formal or informal education program aimed at improving employee skills and performance at work.

Boost your image with corporate training

Some establishments may feel that corporate trainings are a waste of money and time, but through the course of this article I will explain why it makes sense for small businesses to invest in such training programs.

However, first let me respond to the argument that trainings are a waste of time and money. Those who feel that way probably have a very narrow vision of where they want to take their business. To create an environment that’s perceived as progressive, growth oriented and employee friendly, you need to start taking ownership of your staff’s professional development.

Many small businesses have the image of being glorified sweatshops that follow archaic business practices and exploit their employees. If you want to shed this image and be seen as a forward thinking company that cares for its employees and is not shy of investing in improving the quality of workplace, having a robust training and development program is a good way to start.

Benefits galore

Corporate trainings are designed to improve the skills of your employees and help them perform their job with confidence. The skills we’re talking about could be soft skills such as communication and time management, skills related to their specific tasks or roles, and general management/leadership skills.

All of us know how difficult it is for small businesses to attract skilled professionals and even if they do manage to acquire talented people, employee retention remains a challenge. Given this scenario, imparting task-related corporate training to employees who come on board will ensure they’ve the proficiencies that are specifically needed for their job.

This will lead to higher efficiency and improved productivity in addition to improving employee confidence and morale at the time of starting a new job.

Corporate trainings are also useful when you transition to a new process. For example, if you have just started using new software for your billing activities, you can train the staff impacted by it en masse via corporate courses.

Upskilling and cross-training

While they play a vital role in helping employees get a handle on their role in the company or understand new systems and processes, that’s not all corporate trainings are meant for. They can also be effectively used to groom high performers for leadership roles.

Just imagine, you’ll be creating your very own pool of managers and leaders instead of hiring them from B-schools at inflated salaries that you know you cannot afford.

Like I mentioned just now, finding right people for a particular job is a huge challenge for small businesses. But if you’re smart, you can hop over that hurdle quite easily by cross-training your employees. Cross-training simply means you’re training someone for a role other than his/her core job.

Not only will that ensure you’ve a bigger resource pool for various functions in the event of an employee resigning unexpectedly or proceeding on a long leave of absence, but it will also act as a motivator for your staff. Employees will feel more valued in the company and the added skills will increase their confidence-level resulting in increased enthusiasm, efficiency and loyalty.

Soft skill training programs, on the other hand, help in holistic professional development of your employees and make them better equipped to handle client-facing roles.

Next steps

If you as a small business now recognize the importance of corporate training for your overall growth, you’re certainly on the right track.

However, what is also a reality for small businesses is the lack of easy cash flow. While no one expects you to have a whole department dedicated to training and development, there’s no dearth of alternatives if you have the intent.

What I am referring to is online corporate training. Just like everything else in the world has moved on to cyberspace, so has education and training. You’ll find plenty of training companies such as Dale Carnagie Training that offer online corporate courses, which are convenient as well as cost-effective.

Many of them will also offer customized training programs tailored specifically to your needs. CareerStep’s corporate training programs are a case in point. If you think your business has unique needs that are not met by pre-designed courses, you can approach such companies to build a course around your requirements.

So hop on the corporate training bandwagon and see where it takes your business!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *