Scheduled Training- worth marking on your calendar!

With changes in technology occurring everyday- and will continue to occur, even the most senior and skilled employees you have will need to be trained to adapt to changes. There are several things you can do, aside from on the job training with your company to maximize training efforts.

For starters, there are passive things you can do, such as provide your workers with training materials and manuals that they can take home to study and refer to time and time again. There are trade publications for virtually ever industry, and with that, also books published. Look for some specific to the work you do. This will allow your employees a way to keep up with current trends at their own pace, and be able to bring what they have learned to the jobsite.

Another way of training your employees could be to invite in experts to give how-to demonstrations. You can look for these through your vendors. Perhaps they have marketing people who send out experts on their products to do training sessions. And, this kind of presentation does not have to be limited to train people how to do something mechanically, but also to help with handling customers. There are consultants and motivational speakers
readily available to teach employees how to handle customers, deal with job stress and more.

These can be eye-openers for your employees, and also give you a break from doing the talking! In addition, these vendors may offer special certifications for those that train on their products. This could be another incentive to get people excited about the training, in that they’d get a certificate acknowledging their time.

You could also look into continuing education classes at local technical school and community colleges. Perhaps there is a class you think your employees will benefit from. You could pass out the information, and give them the days off they’d need to attend.

Depending on your budget, you may even be able to pay for courses. This does not mean you have to send them for a degree, but just simply one course that could give them a continuing education credit. You’d be surprised the amount of interesting classes that are available.

Also, sending your employees to classes, conference, seminars and other training sessions can be very beneficial. Not only can they meet other people in their field from across the region and share ideas, but also get some great training in a variety of topics during one or a few days.

Many professional industry organizations offer events like this, for members and non-members. Check into them by doing a quick web search, look in the publications you subscribe to for advertisements. Many times, after participating in a conference or seminar, attendees can leave with a certificate of completion. That will be something nice for them to hang on their walls, and something you can boast to your potential clients.