What and when to train employees

Further training of employees is a topic that is relevant for any businessman. In order not to drown in the sea of ​​information about various trainings and courses, the employer needs to imagine how training is generally classified and what exactly its employees need.

Anya Pabst, Head of BEITRAINING.

BEITRAINING is an international franchise company and a certified strategic partner of the German and Austrian franchise union on the topic of "Continuing Education". It specializes in training and professional development in the field of management, trade, customer service and personal growth.

www.bei-training.ru

Training, advanced training and retraining are the three main types of employee training. The first assumes that the employee needs certain skills to start working in a new workplace, for example, to master a new generation accounting program. Further training is required for employees to keep up with the times when the enterprise is entering new horizons, and retraining is required for those who want to realize themselves in a new capacity if previous skills are not sufficient.

Another division divides training into vocational and training in social competencies, the so-called people skills. It can be carried out both on-site (training on courses outside the company, at another branch or special school), and on-site (at the enterprise itself with the participation of an invited coach or fellow mentor). “As a rule, the effectiveness of training people skills largely depends on the motivation of the employee,” says Anya Pabst, head of the Moscow branch of the international company BEITRAINING. “Therefore, such advanced training is a purely voluntary matter, because the application of the acquired skills in practice depends on the employee’s involvement in the training process.”

People skills are a wide range of topics. Particularly developed is the area responsible for communication skills with customers - both external (customers, partners) and internal (colleagues, subordinates). Such skills are closely related to the professional growth of the employee: the ability to realize professional knowledge largely depends on social competencies. An example of such trainings is training in telephone communication skills, teamwork and competent delegation of authority, sales technology and communication with difficult customers.

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The second extensive block relates to self-organization and personal competencies: this is time management and the ability to prioritize, the skills of effective presentation and business communication, the ability to speak in public, fluency in foreign languages ​​and the foundations of intercultural communication. In recent years, more and more people have realized the importance of continuing education. The benefit is determined purely economically: with equal qualifications, one who speaks a foreign language can receive a promotion or a higher salary from two employees.

From motivation to competency

The question often arises: is it worth sending employees to courses outside the enterprise, which means incurring additional cash and time costs? On the other hand, training right in the office is the inability to break away from current affairs. There will always be something that will distract workers: an urgent call, a failed order, a meeting. All this will negatively affect the learning process. In addition, if among the students there are ordinary employees and managers, superiors and subordinates, this will affect the mood within the group and distract from study. But training in a mixed group, where the rest of the “students” are equivalent employees of other enterprises, will completely change the rules of the game.

If the problem with the choice of the place where the training will take place and with the composition of the group has already been solved, it is too early to relax. “The most expensive courses will not be useful if the employee does not have the motivation to study,” says Anya Pabst. If the courses are perceived as a duty or a whim of the employer, there will be little benefit from them. Experts believe that the motivation of employees largely depends on whether they spend their own resources on training. Funding can be shared between the employer and the employee, and even if the employee incurs only a small part of the costs, this already has a positive effect on his willingness to study. Contribution can also be expressed in non-material form, for example, when several days of vacation are spent on training. The principle is simple: if you feel that you are sacrificing something for the sake of learning, then you will try to make out of it as much as possible useful for yourself.

The effectiveness of training also depends on the right moment. Any employee in the process goes through certain productivity cycles. Foreign language courses are out of place for a beginner who has just been hired and is still only getting used to a new role. If an employee has been working for a long time and is at the peak of productivity, he should not be distracted from work. If there has been a decline in his activities, perhaps the time has come for a little shake. And since productivity cycles are individual, it is almost impossible to choose the perfect moment that suits all employees.

To choose the right effective training for employees, consider the fact that each person perceives information differently. There are those who better perceive printed text and like to learn from books. Others need lively communication. Audiovisuals perfectly master the knowledge gained through online courses and interactive training, while other types of personalities - for example, kinesthetics - will meet with this method of hostility.

The effectiveness of training is largely determined by whether the acquired skills are used in the work process and whether they have a positive impact on the activities of the company. This can be seen only over time, but immediately after the completion of the courses, it is worthwhile to conduct a survey among employees - oral or in the form of questionnaires, and find out how they themselves evaluate the effectiveness and timeliness of training (it is better if the survey is anonymous).

Finally, remember that spending money on training employees is worth it when necessary, and the estimated benefits can be calculated economically. Otherwise, it may happen that you raised employees to the satisfaction of competitors.