Whether you have a handful of employees or hundreds of them, making sure they have as much education as necessary to handle their respective job duties is something that should never be taken for granted.
Think about when you started working and before you created your business or purchased it from someone else. How much schooling did you have at either time?
In today’s technologically-driven work world, having workers up to the tasks that you throw at them is more critical than ever.
As a result, there are a number of things you can do as an employer to beef up your employees’ educational portfolios, all the while enjoying the benefits down the road of having more educated workers on your team.
They include:
- Needs – First and foremost, look to see what your current and likely pending needs are for your industry and your company in general. Have you looked at a projected growth for your business and market overall? What current economic factors are harbingers for things to come over the next 12 months? Are you forecasting any notable job increases or layoffs in the next year? These should all be areas of interest to you as a business man or woman, having the finger on the pulse of your industry;
- Strengths and weaknesses – It should not come as a major surprise that just about all employees have their strengths and weaknesses. Your job as an employer is to bring out the best in your workers and improve their skills where possible. When it comes to the latter, there are educational opportunities that your employees can benefit from. If you have one or more employees working in H.R., sending them to school for additional education in areas of workplace rules and regulations, liabilities that employers can be exposed to, handling the complex world of health insurance etc. are all opportunities where a little more schooling can make a world of difference. As for employee strengths, it never hurts to have the occasional refresher course or two (something that some additional classwork can provide) so that your staff will be as up to speed on possible;
- New opportunities – One of the many advantages of the Internet is having access to countless online opportunities, including additional education. If your employees who are yearning for more education can’t attend classes in person due to work schedules, family commitments, long traveling distances, they likely have the option of online studies. Whether it is in accounting and finances, human resources, electrical and computer engineering, marketing or myriad of other subjects, letting employees take online courses to improve their standing with your company is a great idea;
- Long-term financial benefits – Yes, contributing towards or even paying the entire bill to have employees get more education now is a costly matter, but the benefits down the road are oftentimes all so worth it. Employees with more educational and job skills are more apt to stay with an employer, especially those companies who treat them well and offer advancement opportunities (see more below). Better educated employees also are better equipped to handle the questions, concerns and even occasional anger of customers. With additional educational and workplace skills, such workers can oftentimes diffuse a situation with a consumer before it gets out of hand;
- Higher standing – Last but not least, your company offering additional educational opportunities to its employees will stand out in the crowd. When many people are fighting just to get their hands on low-paying or even minimum wage jobs in today’s challenged economy, the opportunity proves appealing to work at companies where moving up the ladder and the pay scale for that matter is very attractive. Tout the educational opportunities your business offers when marketing your company to prospective employees. This can be done in brochures, email ads, on social media, even in videos. The more the word gets around, the better opportunities your company has to attract the best.
As an employer, all you can do to attain and retain the best employees benefits you, your employees, and your customers, so everyone involved wins.
Use the educational bonus to bring in quality staff who one day have the ability to be even better employees with some additional schooling.
Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com
About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and educational topics on the web.
