Training your staff

By talking through a problem or task with a coach/manager, employees can arrive at a solution or better method of working

• Cost-effective if done in-house
• Specific to your business' needs

• Coach/manager needs coaching
• Can be time-consuming

Employees follow courses online

• Employees teach themselves at their convenience
• Low cost

• Courses tend to be general rather than specific to your business' needs

Training through classes held in the evenings

• No disruption to employees' work

• May disrupt work-life balance of employees
• Employees may resent having to attend classes in the evening and may not turn up

A group of employees train together under the supervision of a trainer - typically involves explanation, examples, trying out the skill or method, reviewing what happens, and considering developments and alternatives

• Employees practice solving problems

• Time-consuming - typically takes at least half a day, if not more
• May be disruptive to your business if many employees attend at the same time
• Can be expensive if you send many employees to workshops

Employees are given paid leave to attend courses and attain a recognised qualification

• Both the business and employee benefit
• Can be a good recruitment incentive
• Tax relief may be available on cost of course

• May be difficult to decide who is eligible

Formal or informal way of helping a new employee to settle down quickly in the job by introducing them to people, the business, processes etc

• Can be formal or informal
• Low cost
• Focused on new employees and those starting new roles

• May take up large part of manager's time if many new people start at the same time

One employee observes another employee going about their job

• Low cost
• Specific to your business/their role

A more senior person typically supports an executive/manager/director by providing advice, support and a forum for discussing problems

• Provides personal development
• Low-cost

• Limited to more senior employees
• For mentoring to be effective, the personalities and experience of mentor and employee need to be complementary

Employees attend a seminar on a specific topic - this can be in-house, at an industry event or organised by a training specialist

• Useful way of getting a lot of information over to a large audience
• At industry events and at seminars organised by training specialists, employees can talk to their peers as competitors/partners

• Employees may be unable to discuss specific problems in front of rivals
• Retention of information may be low if there is a lot of information to convey to employees

Employees train through courses devised by educational institutions (eg Open University), but are not required to attend traditional classes

• Increasingly web-based
• Employees can learn at their convenience

• Courses tend to be general rather than specific to your business' needs

Typically employees in a particular department (eg sales) come together to take on roles to help work through possible scenarios (eg customer complaint)

• Employees learn by doing and are prepared for possible situations at work
• Specific to your business
• Can be led by a manager