Training your workforce is something that most businesses understand is a necessity. However, many view it as a chore - something that takes employees away from their daily tasks, and therefore impedes productivity. This view has led to many companies seeing the process as a one-off incident that can then be forgotten about.
However, simply training your workers in an aspect of the business once and then leaving it is foolish. The rapidly changing nature of most workplace skills means that if you don't keep everyone up-to-date on the latest developments, your business could become bloated and inefficient, falling behind its competitors.
While taking employees out of the workplace for a day in order to train them might seem counterproductive, it is better for your business' efficiency in the long run. They will come back as faster, better workers that are capable of taking your business to the top.
These are just a few of the reasons behind a recent guest article for the Huffington Post written by Emad Rizkalla, founder and chief executive of Bluedrop Performance Learning. Mr Rizkalla said: "Workforce training must not be regarded as a 'one and done' methodology."
The Bluedrop CEO pointed to an interesting statistic: human knowledge currently doubles every 13 months, which is expected to reduce to 72 days by 2020. This might seem like science fiction, but the logic behind it is sound. A large portion of what we learn helps us learn new things faster.
Take computers, for instance. They have aided our ability to learn by a huge amount, as knowledge that would take time to look up is now available with a quick web search. However, in order to take advantage of this, people need to learn how to use computers. This is where the need for training comes in.
Mr Rizkalla said: "In a world in which 50 per cent of the skills people use to do their jobs change every three years, how can employees hope to stay relevant? This is the human condition; no sooner have we learned how to use a new gadget than the next, better gadget comes out. New gadgets require training."
There is no point taking your employees to a single training session on a certain technology, process or method of working and then leaving it at that. The world is constantly changing and progressing, so your employees' training will soon become out of date if you don't keep them learning.
Providing training sessions on a regular basis for your workforce is a good long-term investment. It might cost you money and lose productivity, but the benefits of having employees who are up to speed on the latest innovations in their industry will outweigh this by a huge amount.
