5 Reasons Why Now is the Perfect Time to Invest in Training

Many organizations see training as something that happens at the beginning of employment. However, really great organizations recognize training is important at every stage of an employee’s tenure with their company. 

Perhaps the thought of continuously training your employees leaves you feeling overwhelmed and thinking, how do I find the time to train? This is where we’d like to challenge you – how can you NOT find the time to train? Even in the busiest of times, without continuous training and regular opportunities to grow, employees can lose interest in their jobs, become complacent in their work, and maybe, worst of all, stop growing as individuals. An organization full of disinterested, complacent employees that aren’t growing isn’t going to go very far!

The 26+ years spent training hundreds of organizations all over the world has given us unique insights into the benefits organizations and individuals see when they continuously take the time to train their staff. And if you’re looking for the right time to train… it’s now!

Here are five reasons why your organization very well might benefit from training right now:

Your team is working together in new ways.

Covid-19 has changed so much about how so many, if not ALL businesses are operating nowadays. If you work in a customer-facing business, chances are the current landscape looks a lot different than it did at the end of 2019, with strict safety measures now in place around distance, masks, occupancy, etc. Or perhaps you’ve taken elements of your business virtual, as we have, creating a totally new working environment. Teams are working together in ways they’ve never had to before, relying on screens and phone calls to communicate with one another. While this brings tremendous opportunity for innovation, it also presents a unique set of challenges, many of which you’ve never faced before. Getting some outside guidance on ways to effectively navigate conflict, address performance issues, give great service over the phone and in writing can do wonders to bolster your team, as they work together in new ways!

You need to get buy-in to begin making changes in your business.

Have you had the experience of attending a conference that’s left you inspired and eager to put your new learnings into practice upon returning to the office? We sure have. A challenge we’ve noticed from our own post-conference experiences, as well as from what our clients tell us after attending our seminars and workshops, is that as excited we are to bring new ideas back and put them into action, going it alone can be tricky. More often than not, returning to work and getting buy-in from the rest of your team will be necessary before making any changes, right?  That’s why training as a team can be so valuable! 

Attending training as a team allows a group to hear the same message at the same time. This can make it much easier to get on the same page and generate collective excitement about returning to work and implementing any learnings. Team training offers a shared experience that we’ve found significantly increases the chance of meaningful change taking place. Not to mention there are unique opportunities for connection that happen when people go through a learning experience together; when a co-worker shares a story that resonated with you, and you learn to relate to one another differently. 

You need some inspiration.

It’s hard to imagine anyone looking back at the year 2020 and saying to themselves, “Wow, that was a great year!” Let’s be real–this year has been inordinately tough and it isn’t even over yet. Like us, you’ve more than likely had to pivot your business to meet your new reality. And it’s hard work. Front-line employees are encountering customer issues they’ve never faced before. Leadership teams are doing their best to lead through this difficult time. It can be exhausting to think of all that lies ahead, and sometimes, a boost of inspiration is needed to keep going. Bringing in someone from outside your organization who is going through similar challenges can offer that boost of inspiration! Hearing you aren’t alone, acquiring new tools to help better the business, watching your co-workers have lightbulb moments – all of these things can inspire!

You’d like to get everyone moving in the same direction.

To be fair, no one knows what the future holds. But if you could imagine a better future, what would you want it to look like? Does your team have a shared understanding of what they want the future of the business to look like? If not, each person might be working towards their own idea of what that future looks like, but odds are pretty good that it looks a bit different for each person. It may be time for a shared organizational vision. Imagine being able to define, document, and communicate what success looks like at a particular point in the future with enough richness in detail that anyone can read your team vision and imagine themselves in the moment. A shared, inspiring vision works wonders in bringing a team together, all working towards a common goal. So although we can’t predict the future, having a vision can inspire and offer hope, giving everyone something to work toward. 

Your business’ systems are changing.

Systems you’ve had in place for operating as an organization may no longer work in a Covid-world. Changes that impact almost every area of our lives are happening on a daily, or even minute-by-minute basis. How do you know the systems you have in place are the right ones to meet these changes?  How do you modify your current systems to fit the business’s changing needs, and/or develop any new ones? How do you best roll out these changes? 

Fortunately, there is help available to set your business and your systems up for success! 

Hint: It comes in the form of training. (See what we did there?) There are all kinds of training opportunities available for developing effective systems to help with your business’s changing needs. Additionally, there are great frameworks for communicating said changes to your team in a way that mitigates any fear around change (it can be scary at times, but it doesn’t have to be, we promise!). And you can even get help with training the new systems to staff in ways that set both employees and the business up for success!

The Bottom Line:

As your organization evolves, committing to and prioritizing training leads to a stronger, more inspired and better connected team, as well as a more adaptable business. One that can better meet growing/changing demands, works towards a common goal, prioritizes the people working in it, and gets consistently better results! A win-win-win-win, right? So what are you waiting for? Check out the possibilities!