A company is only as successful as its weakest employees. Employees are the direct face of the company and play an important role in increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction and in driving business sales. How then, can a business choose and train the best employees? Many believe that the best employees are not only selected carefully but are also successfully trained and developed.
How to find the best candidates
Employee training is not useful if you do not have trainable employees. It is important to choose candidates that have beginner skills that can be trained and developed. With the internet today, employers have even more opportunity to choose employee candidates that are both qualified and trainable. Employers can also find high potential candidates through job recruitments, outsourcing hiring needs, and by promoting from current employees. Promoting from within in a great way to estimate how well a candidate will do in an employee development training program.
Choosing the best skills for development
To successfully develop an employee, the program needs to be designed carefully. The program should aim to develop specific skills that are most important to the success of the business. Soft skills are indicative of employee ability to problem solve, a measure of reliability, and leadership potential. Among the top 10 soft skills sought by employers include work ethic (73%), dependability (73%), positive attitude (72%), self motivation (66%), team orientation (60%), and organization skills (57%). However, the specific skills that become a part of the employee development training program will depend on the business and its overall goals.
The importance of both soft skills and hard skills
A successful employee training program includes both soft skills and hard skills development. The vast majority of employers, 77%, believe that soft skills (less tangible skills associated with one?s personality, such as a positive attitude) are just as important as hard skills (skills that are learned to perform a specific job function and can be measured, such as operating a computer program). One of the biggest failures when it comes to employee training is when a company only focuses on either soft skills or hard skills in development.
How leadership training can grow a business
Leadership training is also important in an employee development plan. Without effective leaders, a business will never grow. One business owner cannot effectively train and develop every single employee. For this reason, it is important to train effective and successful leaders with advanced employee training and rely on those leaders to develop other employees. The most successful of businesses have both highly developed owners and leaders. It was estimated that in the United States, the investment in leadership development was approximately $15.5 billion in 2013. It seems that more and more businesses understand the value of effective leaders.
The most successful businesses are ones that focus on improving employees and their skills. An employee?s skill level, both hard and soft skills directly affect the outcome and success of a business. It is also important to develop strong business leaders to manage lower level employees. There are many benefits of employee training and development. These development and training programs can effectively take current employees and develop them into highly performing individuals. Employers will also find that developing current employees usually provides a better outcome than hiring employees specifically based on their current skills.