Employees represent the human capital of a business. Investments in training not only pay dividends by increasing the human capital value of the business but also work to reduce costs and improve employee morale. These conspire to lead to increased productivity in the workplace. There are several pieces of training that every company should be giving their employees on a regular basis.
Cross-Training
Cross-training is training employees in different job roles. When businesses invest in cross training, employees feel valued by their company because of the investment being made in them. Employee cross-training is an effective way to increase employee engagement and morale while providing a business with a ready supply talent that can quickly be deployed to different areas based on business demands.
Facility Security
Security is an important buzzword in all industries today and with good reason. Companies have a responsibility to their clients, shareholders, and employees to provide a secure environment. For this reason, facility security training is mandatory at most companies in the onboarding phase. Unfortunately, employees don’t always remember the training taught, especially if significant time has passed. They fall into habits like buddy swiping or piggybacking through secure doors. Regular facility security training is a good way to remind employees to take security seriously and remind them of security protocols.
Data Security
Data security is another area where regular trainings are important. In fact, if there was just one area where regular trainings are imperative, data security training would definitely be it. You’ll want to cover email, phishing, malware, and spam and how they all work together to cause security issues. Email is one of the most important business tools and it’s a danger because of phishing. Phishing is utilizing masquerading or devious devices to gain access to sensitive information through email. Phishing attempts are constantly changing in response to anti-phishing initiatives. Regular employee trainings keep them up to date on how to detect and deal with phishing attempts. Malware and spam threats change on a regular basis so regular training to keep employees on the knowledge forefront is imperative. It also helps to have professional IT support to help prevent viruses and malware.
Performance Improvement
One area that is often overlooked when giving employee training is a performance improvement. Usually, performance is only discussed during yearly employee review sessions that focus on past mistakes and future goals without any specificity. Performance training can improve employee morale while improving employee performance. One performance improvement idea is to offer a monthly training for each work group that focuses on a single way to improve a process or introduces cost savings. These techniques can be based on employee ideas vetted by management or can be a process that employees are already supposed to do but for some reason aren’t.
Performance improvement, data security, facility security, and cross training are just a few regular pieces of training that companies should be giving on a regular basis. They represent ways to save money, protect assets, and build human capital.