3 Essential Types Of Employee Training

By Perminus Wainaina 

When do you know your employees need training, and what is the most effective training?

Eve runs a thriving grocery shop in the CBD. In the last few years, the shop has been growing and a few months ago, she opened a second branch in Westlands. The second branch started out well, but over time, the sales have significantly reduced.

Eve researched how she could boost sales by empowering the employees. That was when she found out employee training was an effective way to equip employees with the skills they need.

However, with the various training options, she did not know which one she needed.

Empowering your employees through training can greatly increase their ability to execute the tasks they should. However, for the training to be effective, it needs to be matched to the employee’s needs.

Here are the various trainings you need for your employees and the stage when they are most effective.

1. Employee Introduction training

Employee introduction training, commonly referred to as onboarding is the process of integrating new employees into an organization.

The introduction training can either be done to one employee or a team. Onboarding a team is common when you have more than one employee joining your organization at the same time.

When conducting the introduction training, the objective is to familiarize the employee with the company, their specific tasks and roles, the company’s products and services as well as the culture of your organization.

By the end of the introduction process, an employee should have a clear understanding of what the organization does, what their roles are, whom they’ll be reporting to, and their deliverables.

To have a successful onboarding process, encourage questions from the new employees. Also, assign one of the employees to assist and guide the new employee.

2. Soft skills training

Soft skills are personal characteristics that help us interact with other people. These skills include confidence, communication, a strong work ethic, positivity, problem-solving and others.

Technical skills help employees carry out their tasks, soft skills, on the other hand, will help your employees work together in synergy.

The objective of soft skills training is to create effective teams in the workplace. Additionally, soft skills such as effective communication skills can help an employee better their work. When your employees can effectively communicate with each other, they all know what they need to do in order to grow the company and their careers.

3. Technical skills training

A technical skill is an ability or knowledge needed to perform a specific task. For example, coding, writing, designing are all forms of technical skills.

When hiring an employee, there’s an emphasis on what technical skills they have. However, with time, there might be advancements in the fields your employees are trained.

Take accounting for example. When an accountant joins your firm, they already have the skills needed to excel at their job. However, if an accounting software changes or advances, they have to learn these new skills.

The objective of technical skills training is to empower and improve the knowledge an employee has in a particular field. In other words, the training adds what the employee already knows.

When Eve understood this, she booked excellent customer service training for her employees. Three months after the training, Eve wrote me an email, sales from the second grocery shop were on the rise. In that time period, the shop had a 78% increase in sales.

Finally, training your employees is important, it ensures they are updated and equipped to perform their tasks. However, to be effective, you need to know which training is required, and at what time.

Do you have a training need? Talk to the General Manager, Ms. Muthoni Ndegwa. You can reach her on email at muthoni@corporatestaffing.co.ke