Well-trained employees are an essential element of a successful business’s smooth functioning. More importantly, trained employees are more focused on customer satisfaction, which is the most vital factor for an organisation to succeed in business. The main purpose of staff training is to provide the best possible service delivery to customers with the highest level of competency.
In Sri Lanka, as I have pinpointed many times as a corporate executive and trainer, the entrepreneurs who own and operate small business organisations, most often, are either ignorant of or unaware of the extreme importance of training their staff.
There is no doubt that proper and methodical onboarding and training needs funds. Nevertheless, even though there are no metrics to calculate the exact benefits accurately, the benefits that can be derived through trained employees could be immense.
Training employees and applying what was learnt through such training typically leads to higher productivity, enhanced performance, and increased revenue. There are several small business employee training strategies that exist where employers can effectively train their staff members at zero cost. Large organisations throughout the world consider staff training a priority and spend enormous amounts of funds on recurrent training. However, training is an ongoing process. Merely giving a short course during onboarding to an employee is not sufficient. Proper training requires continual engagement and attention throughout the organisation’s operation and across the entire staff.
Morale boosters
Even small companies need to consider providing job-based training to staff to be successful. It is a proven fact that staff training, if properly designed, is one of the most powerful morale boosters that not only can enhance performance but also effectively retain existing staff. Hence, let us look at a few affordable training strategies suitable for small business operations.
Cross-training is an ideal model to keep the whole staff educated on operational tasks other than their assigned duties. In a small operation, extended employee absences can impact day-to-day functioning. Nevertheless, the employer has to face absenteeism and provide for such situations. Therefore, adding cross-training to small or even medium-sized businesses is hugely useful in the long run.
The cross-training plan is not complex and is cost-free for the organisation. The method is to share knowledge, techniques, and on-the-job experiences among colleagues. Each employee shares their specific knowledge and tasks with colleagues to be used in the event of an absence. Not only when an employee is unavailable, but even in other situations, knowledge obtained from cross-selling sessions can be effectively used. Cross-training can also promote team spirit in a small organisation.
For instance, in a small business, the customer experience is at its maximum level if a customer phones in or is physically present for clarification, where the initial receiver can respond to all of the questions without forwarding the call or directing the customer to another person. Cross-training can facilitate a high-quality response that leads to enhanced customer satisfaction.
A few steps need to be followed to have a successful cross-training program. Clarifying the purpose of the session must be abundantly clear to the participants, ideally consisting of the entire staff. Training is not the most enjoyable engagement for many employers, so it is important for the organisers to create interest and motivate them before the start. Motivation can also be achieved by offering rewards, such as free meals or gifts, on the training day. The employer has to choose which employee is most adept at training others on a specific task if the organisation has more than one experienced worker capable of training others on a specific topic. In such a situation, usually senior workers are assigned to the task. However, this may change depending on the specific line of business or the precise subject. For example, if the training is for a technical subject, a technician may suit the job better than a senior manager.
Mentoring is another effective method to train employees in a small business. Often, workers are assigned additional responsibilities without proper directions or guidance. In small operations in Sri Lanka, employees are sometimes hired without formal orientation due to the absence of proper processes. Such situations occur due to a lack of knowledge, inadequate resources, or the inability to disburse additional costs.
Similar to cross-selling, mentoring is a simple method where senior employees are paired with new or junior employees to teach and learn important tasks in the organisation. Prior to the official start of the training, both parties are given opportunities to familiarise themselves and become adequately acquainted.
When implemented, various tasks pertaining to the duties of the trainee are discussed and practised under the mentorship of the paired senior. This is being practised often and successfully to teach selling techniques and approaches by sales teams, where sales trainees are sent out to visit customers with an experienced senior.
Effective method
The ‘brown bag seminars’ are another more informal but effective method that can be used with no cost to the organisation. These sessions are generally held during lunchtime. However, lunch is not provided by the company, and typically the workers bring their own lunch for the sessions. Usually, brown-bag seminars are held on a weekly or monthly basis to prevent the practice from becoming too common or to avoid the meeting being a boring affair. If properly guided, these meetings can be substantially intimate and interactive.
Unlike other methods, brown bag seminars allow the workers to mix together with casual ease and exchange a wide range of knowledge and experiences across all departments of the organisation. Also, these seminars are typically short — often not more than an hour — and do not disturb the employee’s regular routines. This method also gives employees a sense of leadership as each attendee has an equal chance of presenting himself or herself.
Even almost all small companies are now geared to work with modern communication technologies. Then, why not use it to train employees without spending funds? Remote conferencing using video technology is a great way to incorporate small business employee training. As most employees have grown accustomed to video conferencing and other remote technologies, getting them together for periodical training chats can be useful and effective.
Particularly if the video conferencing sessions are pre-organised with a proper facilitator from the staff, these sessions can provide immensely useful information. Not only training facilities for the trainees but also the sharing of useful market and industry information can be done with extreme effect. In addition, question-and-answer sessions in video conferencing allow the employees to communicate with trainers (who are co-workers) to resolve job-related issues.
Generally, small business owners typically focus more on developing the business. The popular belief is that there is no reason to spend time and resources on activities considered less important. However, most entrepreneurs who run medium- or small-scale enterprises miss the point of the immense benefits that they can derive from staff training. Particularly, small businesses, unlike larger companies, are generally not equipped with large workforces to manage situations with staff turnover or absenteeism effectively. In this context, staff training is fundamental and can be helpful in such situations.
Additionally, the training given to employees helps instil professionalism in the outfit, which is easily visible to customers and all other stakeholders of the business. Hence, establishing either low-cost or free training programmes brings immense benefits both instantly and in the long run.