Staff Training Benefits
23 November 2022
The Most Common Types of Workplace Training
Every business is different and for that reason, there are so many different ways to reap staff training benefits. When it comes to the practical aspects of your business, it’s likely that the training will be completely unique to your business. Even if you own a coffee shop, your training methods will be different to the training methods of other coffee shops, because of the specific layout, procedures and staff in your workplace.
However, there are also many types of training that apply to every business. There are general forms of training that are useful in each business, across every industry. The benefits of spending time training your staff according to these topics are innumerable. Let’s take a look at some of the most common types of workplace training.
# 1 – Forms of Practical Training
Computer Skills: Computers are used in nearly every business and improvement of computer skills usually never goes to waste. Many companies offer computer skills training for their staff once a year, or when there are notable changes to computer programs used. The staff training benefits of computer skills training are numerous. It can help staff make use of the resources they have available, as well as waste less time trying to figure it out on their own.
Health and Safety: Health and safety training is important since it is required by law. However, it’s not just the legal requirements that make it so useful to employers. Training staff on health and safety in the workplace ensures that the risk of accidents happening is kept at a minimum and that staff are aware of all the health and safety risks around them and know how to avoid them.
Fire Safety: Another type of training that is usually required by law, fire safety training helps to keep all staff prepared in case of an emergency. It also ensures that the risk of damage to property is kept at a minimum. When every staff member is aware of how to react in the case of a fire, the procedure can be organised and serious injuries can be avoided.
Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment training is sometimes required or recommended by law. It is a form of training that helps educate employees about what is appropriate and inappropriate in the workplace. This is an important type of training to conduct since it helps to avoid any liability in the case of a complaint. It lays out the rules and expectations clearly for staff who may not know about inappropriate behaviour.
# 2 – Forms of Character Training
Leadership: Leadership is a form of training that has numerous staff training benefits, both for the employees involved and the business itself. This is one of the most common forms of training held for employees, often focused on employees who have the most potential for growth or promotion. Training employees in leadership can help them work harder and contribute more to the workplace. It also prepares employees for promotions and makes it easier to train new managers and leaders.
Diversity: Diversity training is crucial in any workplace and it can help limit a company’s liability. Similarly to sexual harassment training, diversity training helps to educate employees who may not understand where the line is in the workplace. It focuses on the differences that may exist between employees, such as race, sexual orientation, religion and age. Diversity training helps to teach employees that these differences are to be celebrated rather than looked down upon. It also communicates that it is illegal and distasteful to treat anyone differently because of any of these factors.
Ethics: Ethics is an important topic to cover in the workplace setting. It can help employees become aware of what is allowed or not allowed at work. However, it is also a great form of character training that helps employees become more educated as people and as a whole. Ethics training usually focuses on situations that may take place in the workplace and the ways that staff should react to them, highlighting actions that are not ethically correct.
Initiative: Initiative training goes hand in hand with leadership training and helps to show staff how to communicate their ideas and strengths in the workplace. This is a great form of character training to aid in employee growth and investment for staff who may be promoted in the future.
# 3 – Forms of Long-Lasting Training
Communications: Communications is a form of training that is considered long-lasting since it applies to every type of workplace. The staff training benefits of conducting communications training include boosted staff ability, higher employee morale and less wasted time and miscommunications. When the lines of communication are kept open in the workplace, it’s much easier for management to address problems and for employees to ask questions. This is a form of training that will allow employees to excel in any position.
Customer Service: Customer service training is useful in nearly any type of business and it definitely doesn’t go out of style. Conducting customer service training helps to prepare employees for all the different ways that they may interact with or come into contact with customers.
Staff Training Benefits
Rather than being unprepared for this, or only trained in one point of contact, staff can be knowledgeable about what to do in any situation. The key focus of customer service training is how to deal with customers in a professional and approachable way. This may sound easy, but it’s actually quite difficult to master, especially in situations where customers are unpleasant.
Human Relations: Human relations is another form of staff training that is always useful. Human relations is relevant in every type of business, no matter how many staff members or customers there are. There is always the need to interact with other people in a professional environment. When staff are trained in professional ways to approach such interactions, it can make the workplace a much more organised place to be. Not to mention, it helps to support other types of training in the same vein, like communications, sexual harassment training, or diversity training. Essentially, the focus comes down to respect and professionalism – values that are useful for every staff member to have.
In conclusion, there are many forms of training that are a benefit to any workplace. From practical training to character training, there is a reason that these types of training are commonly used in businesses across many industries. These training topics are tried and true methods of improving employee morale, avoiding legal complications and developing the workplace as a whole.
It’s essential to provide overarching, general forms of training such as these, as a complement to more focused and specific training that is applicable only to your business. Not only does this help to satisfy employees and boost their job satisfaction, but it also helps them to be more versatile and able workers, no matter what position they are put in. It’s important to consider holding training for the above subjects or even revamping the training that you may already have put in place.