Whenever the topic of investing in staff training crops up, the chances are that someone will pipe up with “What if we train them and they leave?” But turn that thought on its head – what if you DON’T train them and they STAY?

The fact of the matter is that well-trained staff are one of your biggest assets, and can contribute to the success of your company in a whole host of complementary ways. Training should not be regarded as a Profit and Loss item, but rather as an investment in your staff that will pay dividends for years to come. If you change your mind-set to look at training in this light, you can clearly see why there’s a clear business case to be made for having well-trained staff across all functions of your business.

Here are the 8 Benefits Of Training Your Employees:

1. Makes recruitment easier. First of all, a great training programme will make recruitment of the best available talent that much easier. Research indicates that over a third of Millennials are attracted by the prospect of on-going training, helping to speed up their career arc and giving them the reassurance that their new employer is willing not just to hire them – but to invest in them. And as employment levels continue to rise, recruiting the right staff will get more and more difficult in the coming years – so make sure you give yourself the recruitment edge by offering training to your staff.
2. Saves You Time and Money. Mistakes are expensive. When an untrained or poorly trained staff member messes up, it means that another, more senior employee has to step into the breach to sort the problem. And if the mistake is serious enough, it may suck senior management into the mess, eating into valuable management time, and remember that, unless you instigate training in response to persistent mistakes, they’re liable to continue, costing you more and more in time and hard cash alike. Implementing appropriate training means that mistakes are a much rarer occurrence, and the time and money you spend rectifying them reduces accordingly.
3. Keeps Client Confidence High. Your clients are no mugs! They can spot a professional, trained staff member a mile away, and love to deal with people who have the full range of skills to service the client’s needs. When you skimp on training, your clients will notice it, and will eventually ‘vote with their feet’. Poorly trained staff deliver inferior client service, are less able to provide valued advice, and simply fail to inspire confidence on the part of the client. Can you really afford to have this sort of staff representing you? Surely it makes sense to have staff in place who can fully service the needs of your clients – both today and into the future.
4. Increased Training Means Increased Productivity. The research proves it time and time again – staff who have been fully trained out-perform their less able rivals across a whole range of KPI’s, everything from hitting their own personal delivery targets to acting as a better ambassador for your company with all the clients they come in contact with. Whatever task your staff happen to be performing; they’ll do it better if they genuinely know what they’re doing!
5. Contribute To A Culture Of Excellence. If your company pursues excellence in manufacturing, service or client satisfaction, the fact of the matter is that a poorly trained staff member can seriously eat into this culture, making it appear acceptable that there are two ways of performing a task – the fully professional way or the “I’ll have a go” way.
6. Prevent Staff Churn. One of the biggest contributors to high staff turnover is failure to invest in your staff. And high staff turnover is not just expensive in terms of recruitment cost – it also sends out a message to your customers that you don’t provide the sort of workplace that they themselves provide for their staff. Your reputation is only as strong as your weakest staff member, so doesn’t it make sense that even your most recent recruit is trained sufficiently to represent your company in the brightest light.
7. You’ll Alienate Your Competent Staff. Nobody likes to feel that they are being taken advantage of. So for staff who are fully trained (by yourself or in a previous work life), they will quickly lose patience with having to step in to sort problems caused by poorly trained or untrained staff. And to compound this, the untrained staff will be very much aware of their shortcomings and will be angry at constantly having to be ‘bailed out’.
8. You’ll Lose The Power Of Great Networking. Every single staff member is likely to interact with your clients, whether it’s at a formal presentation, or simply bumping into them at their kids’ football match. If they can’t make a basic elevator pitch or chat informally but confidently about your business, it reflects poorly on you.

The points above around training in general apply with equal certainty to pretty much every aspect of your business, but when it comes to training your staff in the area of Payroll and Accounting Software, we have a very specialist set of expertise that can genuinely take your staff to the next level.

Under the heading of Accounting Software, for example, we were Sage 50 Irish Partner of the Year 2016, proof positive of our excellence in this area.

We are also acknowledged experts in Sage Micropay, a highly sophisticated yet easy-to-use payroll software that’s perfect for medium to large Irish companies, and takes care of all Irish Revenue compliance requirements.

The bottom line is that training, in general terms, is one of the most important considerations when it comes to having staff that constantly exceed your clients’ expectations. But in more specific terms, when you’re ready to move your staff to the next level in terms of Payroll System and Accounting Software, you need to talk to Pimbrook.

Contact us today on 051 395 900 – and let’s get the ball rolling!