Those who are in management position but have no appreciation of the value of training often use employee training costs as an excuse to stop the introduction of training in an organization. They argue that it will incur expenses that may be hard to recover. Unfortunately their vision is short-sighted that they don’t know the long-term benefits of employee training not only to their personnel but more importantly to the company as well. If you happen to be in a position wherein you are planning to incorporate employee training in your plans and you have to face management with the same view, there are things that you can do to make it work. One of the best things to counter their argument about high employee training costs is to come up with a training budget that is affordable yet effective.
Reduce employee training costs without sacrificing development
There are a number of strategies that you can do to dramatically reduce employee training costs. Try considering the top tips below:
- Analyze and learn to differentiate between “needs” and “want” – one of the reasons why employee training costs are high is because the organization does not evaluate the trainings that they conduct. The company’s approach is usually asking the employees for their inputs. Unfortunately, employees usually have trainings in mind but not all of them are really necessary or will provide a positive impact in the company. That is why you need a body that will assess what trainings are needed. Trainings should address existing problems be it a gap in skills or knowledge.
- Take advantage of modern technology – thanks to the internet age, resources are overflowing for as long as you know how to select and look. There are numerous trainings that can be readily downloaded. These trainings can be used to train your employees. Moreover, you can also transfer your production manuals and other standards into electronic format to make it more interesting and interactive.
- Identify experts in your organization – high training costs usually stem from fees given to trainers/ speakers. Do not forget that more often than not, the best people to teach you how to do the job are those that are already in your organization. Tap the most experienced and knowledgeable persons on the team and let them be the resource person for certain topics. Apart from saving money, you will be able to help boost the confidence of a lot of your workers as they will feel valued and honored.
- Be resourceful – keep in mind that there is always a way for someone who is persistent. Try to take advantage of free trainings given by organizations or groups that are related to your line of industry. You can let a few people attend and try to echo what they have learned to other employees.
Providing trainings to your employees is valuable. Its positive impact affects not only the employees but the entire organization as well. Employees who receive proper training are more confident to do their job. Their morale is also high which will then translate to productivity and efficiency. The only thing you need to take care of is t keep the employee training costs reasonable and your business will continue to thrive.