Five reasons training is a worthwhile investment for small businesses

Investing and organizing training for your employees seems, at first, a burden. Why spend time on this? Why should you let fewer employees run the business as usual while the others are off having fun in training? And what about the employee who completes their training and then takes their new skills to the competition? In fact, reasons for not investing in training are easy to find, but none of these excuses will make your business grow.

So, instead of pondering the inevitable downsides of expenses, here are the five (plus one) reasons that small-business owners should invest in training and upskilling their employees.

More interested, and interesting, employees. As you highlight your organisation’s training policy, outlining the selection criteria, topics, budgets and calendar, you are more likely to attract and retain better candidates with the desire to make a difference. Training also promotes greater job satisfaction, which in turn makes employees more productive and loyal to your organisation. And as you encourage a healthy workplace culture and you support your employees completing their training and coming out the other side with a positive learning experience, your employees will recommend your organization to other valuable workers.

Better control of the day-to-day business. With training in soft and hard skills, employees will gain both confidence and capacity and be better able to handle all aspects of your business. Their increased skills and more flexible state of mind will allow them to undertake more job roles and allow you to be more confident in their handling of key tasks.

Increased sales. Better trained employees have a broader perspective of how the business works. Aware of their role in the value-chain, they are more confident in overcoming issues, providing higher level of service, managing your customers’ end-to-end experience and delivering superior results.

Growing your business. By ensuring your employees refine their skills (not only technical but personal self-improvements such as creative thinking or managing risk), you give them the tools to better adapt to change and become the robust pillars of your scalable organisation.

Invest in your future. Training programs and qualified employees increase business performance, making your company sustainable and valuable. The benefits of training last over many years, inevitably impacting your business positively and paying for themselves many times over.

Building employees’ skills are not just about them. It’s about enhancing your business’s performance and increasing company value. But, most importantly, it is also about you: transitioning from doing to leading, helping to develop the potential of others and in that way giving back to the community.