“We do not have any budget to send our employees for training…”;
“We are so busy with operations and do not have time to send our staff for training…”;
“I do not see the results of my training expenses…”;
“Our business is down, so let’s cancel all trainings planned this year…”
These are common statements we have heard in the past, and maybe some of us are still facing these challenges in our workplace. Training and development receive mixed responses from senior stakeholders in the corporate world. However, there is sufficient research to indicate that well-trained employees are valuable and contribute to positive business results. Thus, corporate training has become an important strategy for business leaders with foresight to drive business performance and growth.
Corporate Training
Corporate training encompasses structured training programs designed to equip employees at all levels to be effective and efficient in supporting business goals and objectives. These cover a wide range of areas, such as the orientation and onboarding of new employees, technical skills, change management, and leadership development to implement changes efficiently and to build a strong leadership pipeline for the future.
Types of Corporate Training
Some of the key corporate training programs are
Orientation and Onboarding: The focus is on familiarising new employees with the organisational culture, values, vision, and mission for them to be a part of the company. Extensive onboarding can help employees integrate smoothly into their roles as well as their respective teams.
Inter-Personal Skills: As working effectively with others results in the formation of efficient teams, interpersonal skills become important for any organisation. Emotional intelligence, conflict management, team building, time management, and problem-solving are some of the interpersonal skills programs designed to promote harmony and teamwork.
Technical Skills: These programs focus on enhancing and updating the technical expertise of employees to enable them to do their jobs efficiently. These skills can be taught on the job by a buddy assigned to a new employee or an external institution can be employed to obtain technical certifications.
Mandatory Training: These organisation and industry-specific programs are designed to ensure that all employees adhere to high ethical standards and understand the legal framework of the environment in which the company operates. These are generally conducted for all employees within the first 3-6 months in their job.
Leadership Development Training: These programs are designed to ensure that the leadership team is competent and well-equipped with the skills and competencies required to take the organisation and business forward. Some of the programs offered here could be leading and managing change, business acumen, driving business, creating customer loyalty, and developing teams.
Benefits
Organisations that have robust corporate training structures and invest in the development of their employees yield immense results. Trained employees are confident, competent, and empowered to resolve customer problems, enhance customer experience, and build brand loyalty.
Investing in corporate training also helps in the retention of employees, as they are more willing to stay with employers who invest in their personal development and growth. According to LinkedIn’s Learning Report, 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development. (Source: 2018 Workplace Learning Report)
Corporate training also helps employees to be abreast of new trends and perspectives when exposed to different training programs. It helps them engage with other leaders to understand new concepts to solve problems, brainstorm innovative solutions, and then implement these ideas in their workplace.
Challenges to overcome
Despite its known benefits, corporate training faces numerous challenges within organisations. As mentioned earlier, lack of time, resources, busy operations, budget cuts, etc., get in the way of the successful implementation of programs.
These challenges can be overcome with the senior leadership having active discussions with the learning and development team to ensure that the program design and outcomes are aligned with business goals, and by frequently participating in the delivery of the programs to demonstrate leadership involvement and commitment. Direct managers can play an important part in discussing training objectives and results expected before they send their direct reports for training, and then create a learning environment for them to implement what they have learned.
Conclusion
A well-known exchange between a CFO and CEO captures this sentiment perfectly: the CFO asks, “What if we invest in training our employees and they leave?” to which the CEO responds, “What if we don’t, and they stay?” This powerful dialogue underscores the importance of a proactive top-down approach to employee development and growth.
Corporate training is not an expense; rather, it is an excellent strategy for creating a competent and motivated workforce to meet current and future business needs. Organisations that create a culture of learning through structured corporate training programs will have a competitive edge in the long run.
Leave a Reply