Many companies view corporate training as a luxury rather than a necessity or a key strategic resource.

A common but largely unfounded corporate concern is that staff members that are empowered with training and skills development tend to leave after the company has invested this money in their personal growth, and join a competing organisation.

So how can the corporate world benefit from conducting effective corporate training?

A company’s success depends greatly on the collective skills of its employees, and those companies that invest in employee training and development tend to outperform those that don’t.

For the organisation to fully benefit from this spend, employees should view themselves as learners, constantly updating their skills and knowledge and thereby contributing towards reaching not only personal but also organisational goals.

Companies can benefit from investing in corporate training in the following ways:

• Improved recruiting: a company that values comprehensive training programmes and is focussed on fostering an environment where employees realise their growth potential, will always be a more attractive option for high calibre staff;

• Higher retention: if an employee knows that a company values their personal growth they are more likely to remain with the company for a longer period;

• Buy-in from the top: management is responsible for establishing training schedules within the company. They must therefore be committed to developing an atmosphere dedicated to continual learning and education. If performance appraisals effectively identify training needs and these are then met, employees have a far greater chance of achieving success;

• Alignment with corporate goals: training should go hand-in-hand with the company’s strategic plan, as it can involve interpersonal skills development such as conflict resolution, effective communication, quality management and team building.

Before you start incorporating a training regimen into your company’s strategic plans and budget, you have to assess current staff performance and productivity levels.

Involve the entire team of employees and ask them what they believe is holding the company back. Then determine what skills your employees lack to do their jobs more efficiently. And how is their lack of knowledge and/or skill affecting general performance?

There are many ways to conduct training including utilising corporate training providers, incorporating self-paced training, introducing mentoring or even computer-assisted or web enabled training.

Decide which training option would be best suited to you and your employees’ specific objectives.

Staff who have completed corporate training need to be provided with opportunities that enable them to put their newly developed skills into practise. Talk to each one of your employees to ensure that the training was valuable and met expectations.