It’s true to say that if we hope for our staff to stick around and our labor turnover to remain low, it’s important to invest in the careers of those who work for you. Yet it’s also very important to make sure that long-form staff training is not only invested in, but that it’s useful.
Sure, improving the skillset of your staff is essential over the long term, but if none of those skills are applicable, or are likely to be used, or could even be forgotten, then this is just wasted money spent on the off chance that you won’t have to train someone new.
For this reason, it’s important to curate a robust staff training strategy rather than throwing skill development at the wall and hoping something sticks. In this post, we’ll discuss a few measures you can use geared towards developing staff members that are actually useful to your brand, as well as likely to make good on their potential. Let’s consider how that might be approach via the following examples:
HGV Training
If running your own logistical supply network, it’s good to have drivers on hand. Even if bringing in experienced drivers, it might be helpful to utilize HGV training just to make sure all the necessary road principles are considered and that your drivers are able to competently deliver their loads from day to day, with safety as an utmost concern.
Running a logistical network for the first time can seem like a massive deal, but provided you plan routes well, you make sure that your vehicles are safely inspected each day and fuelled properly, and that the working conditions for your properly-trained and vetted drivers are managed, then you’re likely to achieve success. Yet before that cna happen, of course, it’s important to invest in that long-form staff training most necessary for success.
Professional Development & Surrounding Skills
It’s very important to invest in the long term professional development of your staff and everything they may need to flourish. But what does that mean? Well, it often means taking some time to evaluate what skills may be useful to your brand, but also what skills can help your staff become more rounded, competent, confident individuals.
Not only will this encourage them to stay at your firm thanks to how much potential and personal development you make use of, but in some cases, it can help them expand the reach of their role or just what responsibilities they can take on.
A great example of that is public speaking, where the confident ability to deliver information before a large crowd can not only serve to enlighten the audience, but market to them, and define the true values of your brand as a result.
Help your staff achieve this, and it’s unlikely that they’ll feel anything other than an expanding set of possible routes forward, which leads to a happy and motivated employee. Curate enough of these, and you’ll enjoy a happy and motivated workforce, too.
Technical Compliance
It’s almost always worth considering the technical compliance of your industry, and how you can help staff adhere to it. In some fields, technical compliance changes from year to year, or the shifting tides of society at large can define just how business must take place from here on out.
The GDPR compliance measures that asks websites serving EU countries to request if cookie tracking is acceptable or not is a good example of how norms shift, and technical teams need to be trained in and made aware of the new measures which need to take place.
Of course, we don’t even need to use technical examples to achieve this. The recent and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has totally shifted how firms think about complying with state-mandated orders to preserve health by implementing necessary safety protocols is a great thing to consider, as it can quite literally define how your brand operates from here on out. At least with that kind of understanding, you can move forward and train your staff in the right way.
Up-To-Date Software Capabilities
The software that brands use to define their daily workflow is being updated and features can be stripped or added on a semi-regular basis depending on the brand you use and how they develop their product suite. When changes happen, it’s good to train staff in their proper usage, for obvious reasons. This may take time, but it saves money in the long term.
With this advice, we hope you can encourage the best long-form staff training within your firm. Remember – this is not a chore, but an investment.
