5 Ways Inadequate Training Costs You Money

Have you made the time to create a training manual for your company? When a new employee or contractor arrives, do you take the time to train him or her? Do you provide training dollars for your staff to keep current with new trends or software? Or do you figure they'll just "learn it on the job." That attitude may be costing you money. Here's how:

1. Why do you hire other people? Yes, you want them to work for the company and produce revenue, but a bigger reason is that you want them to do the job that you don't have time to do. Or that you don't want to do. A well-trained employee can free you up to be a big- picture thinker with a laptop at the edge of the ocean. Or it can allow you to stop working 100+ hours a week and remember your children's names. An inadequately trained employee will keep you chained to your desk, doing the work that you are paying someone else to do.

2. If you don't train your employees adequately, they will have a longer lead time to become effective at their job. This costs you time, which of course, costs you money. You'll need to have two employees (one of them may be you) doing the job that one person should be doing. This is particularly true if you have a company that provides services that you bill to other companies. You want to have every employee working effectively, bringing in the appropriate revenue stream.

3. Inadequately trained employees become disgruntled. So do employees who don't receive additional training when they are in your company. Training is one of the most effective ways to keep employees happy and working with you. Think of how frustrated you can become yourself when you think that you aren't being effective, or people are constantly correcting you. The same is true of your employee. Also calculate the cost of finding and hiring a new employee. Doesn't spending some time creating materials and a training process just make sense?

4. Ill-trained employees make mistakes. This can cause the most obvious cost -- time required to fixing their mistakes. But there's another cost -- the image and value of your company. Some mistakes are easily forgiven, but some may reflect poorly on your company, especially if they reach outside your company walls. We're in a litigious society and you want to take every precaution to make sure an easily preventable error doesn't cause someone to sue you.

5. Finally, you want your company to shine. If you don't make sure your employees are well-trained and on top of what's happening in the business and technology world, you may lose business to someone who is perceived to be more advanced. You may not choose to leap on the latest bandwagon, but you should at least know what it is -- and so should your employees.

Article Source: http://www.coacheslyceum.net

Casey Dawes helps boomer women get on the fast track to business success through consulting, education, coaching and speaking. She makes sure that her clients don't fall into the 50% failure rate for small business by helping them avoid common business mistakes and achieve quick financial success. To receive insightful business tips, go to www.wisewomanbiz.com.

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