There may be many reasons why you need to send your staff through training courses, and many reasons you dread having to do so. When you send staff off-site you lose time that they could be working because of course they need to travel to and from the seminar or class. There is also the cost involved, which can be steep for some courses.
It’s also often difficult to coordinate these training courses when you have several staff members that need to attend. You may experience downtime if there are many members of one department that are required to sit through class, and this can affect your business overall.
So how can you get your staff through training courses with the least amount of cost, hassle, and downtime for your business? Consider a few quick pointers and tips.
Use Web and Video Training
There are many training courses that can only be taught in-person; a student may need to actually use equipment or for whatever reason need to be in a classroom or other such setting. However, many today are being taught online or through the use of videos. There are many advantages to this.
For one thing, members of your staff don’t need to leave the building if you use web training or videos. You can set them up in the conference room or lunchroom; this means less time away from their work areas since there is no travel involved.
Also, if you use web seminars and video training for your training courses you can then typically schedule them at your convenience. This means being able to rotate your staff so that no department is left unmanned or with a skeleton crew that cannot function or service the customers.
Take Time to Schedule
One reason that companies have a problem with training courses is that they rarely think about how they’ll schedule them for a department or crew. Often they just send everyone at one time without giving much thought to what that means for a department.
If you take a few minutes to schedule your training courses properly you can then make sure you have adequate staff at all times. Find out when these courses are offered and go over this with your staff schedule. Taking a few minutes to make sure a department is fully staffed or that it has adequate personnel is worth the time; it will mean making sure your business runs smoothly even as staff go through training.
Business owners and managers know all too well that training courses are often a necessary part of doing business. They may be necessary because of legal or insurance requirements. They’re also a way to ensure that your staff understands certain requirements or processes and that they are working safely. However, as necessary as they are, they can also be inconvenient and costly, unless of course you follow these tips to make the best of those courses and seminars.