5 Ultimate Staff Training and Development Tips

As a hiring manager, you no doubt know that staff training and development is important for many reasons. It leads to higher employee retention, for instance, and better identification of potential leaders. Add enhanced employee productivity and self-empowerment into the mix, and you are likely to have happy and effective employees. The following five staff training and development tips can help your endeavors.

1. Practice What You Preach

Consistency matters. Suppose you have training sessions on leadership and independence, but the workplace reality remains that employees have to ask permission for every little decision. There is little opportunity for employees to practice what they learn in training, and the company undermines itself by having conflicting principles.

2. Help Employees Help Themselves

A little struggle goes a long way. You probably know the saying, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Thus, it is worth your while to have some training programs that focus on self-empowerment. Likewise, very technical training may be necessary to ensure employees are well-versed in whatever they need to be. Managers should not be repeatedly finishing tasks for employees.

3. Get Hands-On

The most effective training often incorporates hands-on work. This approach gives employees an opportunity to apply theory to actual practice. It also helps keep training lively and employees engaged.

4. Delegate Ownership to Employees

Urge and allow employees to have a say, or even most of the say, in their own training and development. For example, they may want to take certain workshops or classes, and attend conferences. Create guidelines that apply to all employees so that your business avoids the appearance of favoritism.

5. Ask for Feedback

No staff training and development tips list should be complete without mentioning feedback. Your training could be incredibly boring, and you would have no idea. Employee surveys and feedback forms are two ways to gather input on your training, and the next step of using the feedback to guide future training is important, too.