If you take a look behind the scenes of a large majority of successful businesses you will often find a strong team of well-trained staff orchestrating the smooth running and efficient daily activities with enthusiasm and skill.

Companies like Stinkyink and others like it, are able to meet customer satisfaction levels and grow their business as a result of having a workforce which is productive and where morale is high.

Any business which has a poorly-trained workforce is already at a disadvantage in any number of ways, such as experiencing a high turnover of staff and a low level of morale, which can often translate into poor customer service.

Your staff are your biggest asset

Even if you have a highly desirable product or niche service to offer your customers, you will often be unable to exploit these attributes to their fullest extent, if you fail to look after your staff and encourage them to develop their skills.

It is hard to argue with the observation that your staff should be considered your biggest asset, especially when you look at the success enjoyed by those businesses that offer high quality training and development programs to allow their employees to grow with them.

The advantages of a well-trained workforce

There are numerous advantages to nurturing and encouraging your staff to develop and enhance their existing skills.

They will generally need less supervision and you should also find that employee retention is reasonably high, if people like to work for you and feel they are valued.

If you have a workforce which doesn’t need a great deal of supervision, this allows your business to concentrate on growing rather than continually have to allocate valuable management time in resolving staff issues.

Safety is a primary consideration

Keeping your staff safe and secure at all times has to be considered a primary consideration and one of the best ways of doing that is to provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to follow safe working practices.

Plenty of regular and updated training is a major factor in accident reduction and a fair number of accidents happen in the workplace due to the fact that a member of staff lacked adequate training on how to use or store equipment safely.

Well-trained staff are much less likely to be involved in workplace accidents, so it is a win-win situation for your business, if your staff stay safer with adequate ongoing training and feel happier and confident about their work as a result of this training.

Staff retention

One of the biggest drains on a company’s resources is having a high turnover of staff.

Constantly having to find and train new members of staff will often serve to hold a business back and if you are suffering from a high level of staff turnover, you should ask yourself the reason why this might be the case.

Providing regular training and operating a regular dialogue with all employees on how they think things can be improved, could be beneficial to your business and above all, an employee who feels they are valued and make a positive contribution, will be less likely to leave.

Promotional prospects

Another major benefit associated with having a progressive training program within your business is the fact that allows for better succession planning.

Promoting from within and allowing people to develop and achieve their potential is great for their careers and should be a positive for your business as well.

Providing high quality training and allowing staff to see a potential promotional path as a reward for their efforts, will often give them the skills and the confidence to fulfil their ambitions and move up through the ranks in your organisation, rather than seek an opportunity elsewhere.

Adding value

Well-trained employees should be viewed as an asset for the business and high-quality staff who have a positive outlook are great for customers who like dealing with them and also great for work colleagues, who enjoy a good workplace relationship.

There are numerous ways to effectively train a workforce and the best approach is often a combination of on-site training together with some external courses and access to other resources that will aid their development.

Adding value to your business is all about having well-trained and contented staff who are committed to working for you and care about the long-term success of your business and the role they have to play in making that happen.

John Sollars started his company in 2002 and has watched the printing industry evolve over time. With a passion for writing and for helping people, he likes to share what he has learned over the years. Look for his illuminating posts on many websites and blogs.

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