Here are IndustrySearch's five ways to help you minimise staff training costs in 2015, while still ensuring your team members continue to develop.
Keep it specific
Do you really need to send everyone in the department to every training day? Specificity is key. Each employee should be the expert of their position – and any role they may grow into – but training them in other areas for the sake of 'diversity' is both irrelevant and costly.
When you consider the hours of work missed and other related costs, such as travel and food, it quickly becomes an unnecessary expense. Instead, focus training on the areas that will be beneficial to each employee and what they can achieve for the business.
Establish or strengthen your mentorship program
A mentorship program is a great way to pass on knowledge that is already within the company, from senior employees to the newcomers.
Not only does this dramatically reduce costs as it surpasses the need to send staff away for training days, but it also provides new employees with a reliable ongoing source of information. Senior staff understand the company better than any external 'expert' and can transfer this knowledge via practical teaching.
Utilise in-house experts
Is there someone in your company who is an expert of the new technology your company is adopting? Asking them to lead an information session for other employees can be a great way to provide excellent training whilst also saving on instructor funds.
This has the added bonus that the employee can train other staff using real-life examples from the company and show how it is directly applicable to their work. Additionally, they will still be around when someone has a question a week after the training session.
Use e-Learning Materials
We've all heard about the benefits of eLearning and for those businesses looking to minimise staff training costs without compromising on quality, it's time to jump on board.
These courses offer the information needed to train staff in an informative way. There are small lessons with checkpoints and tests that each employee can tackle in their own time, which has the added bonus of no additional training costs.
Cut unnecessary expenses
It's easy to accumulate costs related to training when you need to arrange time off work, travel and food for the employees attending. Some of these costs are necessary, but some are 'perks' that don't really need to be there.
Cut the venue hire and the expensive lunch, perhaps opting for a boardroom within the company and a simple healthy finger food.
