Top Training Topics for Employee Development

I looked at a well-known corporate training company’s website (one whose services I’ve used in the past) and they list over 140 seminars covering 21 business topics. Clearly, there are many training options available to you.

So how do you pick? Where do you start?

Organization Chart

I’d suggest you start with your organization chart. For most small businesses, it probably involves the owner, an administrative/executive assistant or bookkeeper, one or more “technicians” or people who make the product or deliver the service, possibly a supervisor or crew chief, and perhaps even have a salesperson. For slightly “bigger” small businesses, we start to see departments emerge: sales, marketing, customer service, finance, human resources, operations, shipping/receiving…

The reason I suggest starting with the org chart is that it will tell you what your main functional areas are and which possible training topics are of value to your organization. Have a bookkeeper as you may need to focus on policies and procedures (and thus training) around your financial processes. Have field techs as you probably need a field operations manual and a training program that supports it.

Customer Service Training

Minimally, I would recommend continual customer service training for ALL employees. Nearly any company can create a strong competitive advantage in this area, given the typically low level of customer service most people experience nowadays. Also, every employee in your company serves someone – either inside (internal customers) or outside (wholesalers, retailers, end customers) of your company. Every single person has an impact on the total customer experience.

Communication Skills

Following close behind customer service is communication skills. In this digital age in which we live and work, more and more of our communication is done electronically rather than face-to-face or verbally. Texting and email have nearly replaced phone conversations and impromptu water cooler meetings.

Studies show more than 90 percent of communication is non-verbal. That means less than 10 percent of your message is actually contained in the words/text you use. Couple that with the finding that people are more scared of public speaking than of dying, and you can see how much room that leaves for misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or in short—poor communication. Teaching your staff the finer points of written and verbal communication skills will generate better communication that in turn will lead to improved meetings, clearer expectations, and ultimately better service.

Time Management

Next, I’d suggest focusing on time management. Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of each employee should yield bottom line results by decreasing costs and increasing productivity in the right (mission critical) areas. A word of caution here: there is no training course to help people get 12 hours of work done in 10 hours (unless they can dump or delegate two hours of it). This is about knowing the big picture (company vision) and being able to prioritize accordingly.

Management and Supervisory Skills

Last, I’d suggest management or supervisory skills if you have people managing other people. One of the biggest issues in business today is a lack of good managers. While the role is not difficult, it seems many technicians are promoted to the ranks of managers despite a lack of desire to be a manager and a lack of management experience and skill. This is a recipe for disaster. Taking the time to groom people into management roles will yield many rewards, for you, your staff, and your customers.