Nowadays employee training has become an integral part of almost every business to promote their overall success. In addition to enhancing the skills and knowledge of employees, such training programs allow companies to increase their productivity and promote great company culture. In fact, few of the studies have also revealed that employees who get regular training and learning opportunities are likely to develop, get promoted and spend more time with their organization. Employee training programs lead to employee development through continuous effort in the form of training sessions, coaching, and leadership mentoring. Employee training is a particular event that introduces new concepts and skills to new as well as existing employees who are about to be promoted. In this article, we will learn in detail about what exactly is employee training, types of employee training, objectives, importance and benefits of employee training.
What is employee training?
Employee training deals with enhancing the knowledge and skills of employees for performing specific tasks and promoting overall development of employees. It is generally a well organized activity for enhancing the technical skills of employees for doing a particular job efficiently and effectively. It is a stepping stone for any employee who has newly joined an organization or is likely to take up some other job role within the company. An employee training always ensures that the employee is learning as per the demands of the job and company’s objectives.
Types of Employee Training
Employee training can be bifurcated into two types, namely, on-job training and off-job training. Let’s learn in detail about both the types of employee training.
On-Job Training: It’s a simple as well economical way of training an employee. This is the types of training that is given based on the day to day work an employee is associated with. This type of training is imparted in the real work environment helping improficient as well semi proficient employees to enhance themselves and learn to perform better. On-job training focuses on the principle of learning while doing and offered in the form of coaching, job rotation and temporary promotion.
Off-Job Training: This type of employee training is offered away from the real work set up. It is most widely used for newly joined employees. This type of training is generally costly and is beneficial only if a large number of employees are to be trained in a shorter period of time. Off-job training is alternatively known as ‘vestibule training’ wherein employees are trained in a separate area or vestibule with working conditions being replicated. Off-job training is offered in the form of workshops, conferences, seminars, etc.
Objectives of Employee Training
The primary objectives of employee training are:
- Offering job-related knowledge to employees
- Systematically imparting skills in between the workers to promote quick learning.
- Bringing transformation in the attitudes of employees towards fellow employees, supervisors and the organization.
- Enhancing the productivity of workers as well as the organization
- Reducing the chances of accidents by offering safety training to employees
- Teaching employees to handle tools and use techniques efficiently to prevent wastage of resources and time.
- Helping employees to reach higher job positions by offering them the right knowledge and opportunity to acquire advanced skills.
Importance of Employee Training
Employee training is highly important for the development as well as success of the organization and highly advantageous for employees and employers of the organization. Employee training is important as it helps employees to become more productive and highly efficient.
Employee training is imparted on the basis of following grounds:
- Training and development sessions are arranged for new employees which familiarize them with the core objectives, vision, rules and regulations and the prevailing working conditions.
- Training is given to existing employees which helps them to build on their knowledge and develop the required skills.
- With technological advancements taking place every now and then, organizations set up training sessions for their employees to keep them updated with the latest technologies. Employees are majorly trained on using the latest tools and work methods to do their job in a much better way.
- Career growth is an important aspect of any employee. So when it comes to promotion, organizations often give training to their employees so that they are well equipped to take on new responsibilities and face the challenges.
Benefits of Employee Training
Employee training is one of the primary ways through which organizations cut down their costs in crisis. Although it requires quite an expense to train employees, it is seen as an investment by companies for their better future. This is because training sessions make employees more productive, adaptable and efficient and enhance their skills such as communication skills, problem solving and critical thinking. In this section, we’ll learn about the benefits of employee training.
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Better succession planning:
Regular training helps employees to enhance their knowledge and experience which further transforms them into viable candidates for many responsible and senior positions. Employee training has been found to be useful for purposes like people management, leadership, decision making etc.
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Enhanced value of employees:
Employee training can help in teaching new skills or polishing the existing ones. This helps employees to gain expertise and enhance their value to the organization as they are now able to accomplish more than one task. With diverse skill sets, employees can even move to other better open positions in the organization.
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Promotes employee retention:
By investing in their employees, organizations can easily enhance the retention rate of employees as they are presented with diverse career paths within the same organization and they don’t have to look up to other organizations for better employment opportunities. And this furthermore, helps companies to cut down expenses made on recruiting new employees.
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Leads to enhanced efficiency:
Training leads to enhanced productivity and work efficiency. Furthermore, it offers enhanced consistency and facilitates attainment of company goals and objectives easily.
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Helps meet the latest standards:
Training employees using industry-level practices can help companies to gain an edge over their competitors in the market. Small initiatives like training employees can make big differences to organizations, as having knowledgeable and content employees can interact better with customers and lead to overall growth of the company.
