Quality employee training is of primary importance to your business. Whether it is your employees or those who work for contracted businesses, such as your answering service, staff excel when properly prepared for their positions.
This article examines the overall value of employee training as part of your organizational plan.
You’ll read about strategies that assure employees are routinely offered training to keep pace with emerging business trends and practices. As you do, think about the benefits for your organization and contracted associates.
The Benefits of High-quality Employee Training
Most CEOs and business owners are well aware of the costs associated with recruiting and training new employees. The average costs for new hires hovers close to $4000. Those expenses are only one portion of the recruit-train-retain equation. Think about the revenue that is gained because of quality customer satisfaction. Factors that contribute to quality consumer responses include:
- Prompt, courteous service,
- Staff prepared to answer an array of questions,
- Confidentiality, security, and
- Full follow through with problem resolution.
This certainly applies when your organization’s professional profile is represented by an answering service. It’s vital to have the service’s employees prepared to match the caliber of your own staff. After all, this service is representing your business as needed, day and night.
- Whether you provide healthcare, home systems services, or utilities, you know the importance of having a competent, assuring person there to take your customer’s call, text, or message.
- This is especially true during emergencies, be that an ill relative or plumbing mishap.
- The benefit of a calm, well-informed person on the other end of the phone is something consumers remember and talk about with others.
Getting back to the cost of training, think about the thousands of dollars spent because new hires felt inadequate in their roles. They’re happy to start a new job that quickly becomes lackluster due to scant training. They resign and you’re left with added recruitment expenses.
On the other hand, there are companies with comprehensive, ongoing training programs that have seen a 30% increase in productivity.
- This is typically coupled with satisfied employees who are loyal.
- That means staff retention is positive and absenteeism declines.
- Another benefit is that these employees become more skilled with time on the job and advanced training.
- These are the staff you can rely on for setting a tone of workplace excellence and innovation
Design Training with Employees in Mind
It’s true that training objectives and outcomes focus on the organization, its mission, and financial benchmarks. Even then, you want your business and those who are close associates to design training that literally gets the job done. That means:
- Learning about employees, beginning with the interview and onboarding process.
- Offering employees a variety of learning experiences, including those that involve upskilling or cross-training. Benefits of ongoing training means:
- Being able to recruit from within for advanced positions,
- Having staff who work well across departments, and
- Building capacity for growth or when employees reach retirement.
Start Them Off Right: Quality Onboard Training
Offer new employees an encouraging entry into your organization with a carefully designed onboarding process. This phase combines digital sharing with personal interactions and the practical tasks necessary for new hires. You’ll reduce their frustration by balancing the mundane with the exciting.
This era’s new staff are eager to get right to work, sharing their skills as they learn about your organization. They’re tech savvy and able to adapt quickly to new systems. They are aware of the serious need for security and privacy protections, such as those in place at highly professional answering services. Their eagerness to learn means they welcome the chance to engage in hands-on work activities, even during their first days of employment. This can be achieved by:
- Preparing a variety of manageable tasks for new employees.
- Recruiting and assigning mentors for new staff to shadow and work with.
- Establishing a schedule for follow up, assigning new tasks according to each new hire’s performance.
Remember that the complexity of each position at your organization determines how long the full onboard phase lasts. This period gives you multiple opportunities to establish a solid relationship with new employees by:
- Setting aside time to meet with new employees and gather their feedback.
- Responding to new staff’s questions and concerns as you provide thoughtful responses.
- Using this process to promote engagement within your organization, setting the tone for the months and years to come.
Build a Proficient Workforce with Ongoing Learning Options
Your business will reap the rewards when staff are offered high quality skill advancement and career development opportunities. This is linked with effective performance and increased business success.
- One study of 2000 professionals working at various levels in over 20 industries assessed their skills in four domains.
- Survey results revealed that 73% of respondents believed they needed to improve crucial skills.
- One skill that was noted as lacking was conflict resolution, something central to effective business relations, be it home healthcare or property maintenance.
Upskilling describes the continual planning required for a workplace to keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business practices and requirements. As it sounds, upskilling is far more than the average skills training as it involves both upward and forward planning. It’s a cyclical process of identify-develop-train-assess-revise. The best candidates for filling your answering service needs are sure to follow these five steps for quality employee training as they:
- Identify gaps, lags, or deficiencies in service.
- Develop a training curriculum designed for advancing staff knowledge and skills to address areas of concern while advancing practice.
- Implement the training curriculum.
- Assess the outcomes from learner, associate, and consumer perspectives.
- Revise training elements based on assessment.
You can rely on an answering service that provides a similar approach to upskill training as they provide quality training to respond to:
- Changes in industry standards and regulations such as those associated with healthcare organizations and HIPAA.
- Technological advances, including those to protect privacy and cybersecurity.
- Advances in disaster and public health management.
In Closing
Quality employee training continually results in positive business outcomes, from customer satisfaction to staff retention.
Answering service employees who are well prepared for their jobs are able to respond efficiently and effectively to workplace and community changes.
They are part of today’s workforce serving you toward tomorrow’s growth.
