TRAINING IN YOUR BUSINESS          COMMON QUESTIONS

Employee Training and Development:
Reasons and Benefits

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD  (Applies to nonprofits and for-profits unless noted)

Typical Reasons for Employee Training and Development

Training and development can be initiated for a variety of reasons for an employee or group of employees, e.g.:

• When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
• To "benchmark" the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort
• As part of an overall professional development program
• As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization
• To "pilot", or test, the operation of a new performance management system
• To train about a specific topic (see below)

Typical Topics of Employee Training

• Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs. 
• Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.
• Customer service: Increased competition in today's global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
• Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
• Ethics: Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today's diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace. 
• Human relations: The increased stresses of today's workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can help people avoid conflict in the workplace.
• Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines, and standards for quality, etc.
• Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment , hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc., but can also be useful with practical advice for avoiding assaults, etc.
• Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment training usually includes careful description of the organization's policies about sexual harassment, especially about what are inappropriate behaviors.

General Benefits from Employee Training and Development

There are numerous sources of on-line information about training and development. Several of these sites suggest reasons for supervisors to conduct training among employees. These reasons include:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
• Increased employee motivation
• Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
• Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
• Increased innovation in strategies and products
• Reduced employee turnover
• Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training.
• Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training

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