by Priscilla Hiu. Posted on August 9, 2012, Thursday

SOME companies do not believe in training staff while others just send their employees for training without any proper planning or a purpose in mind.

Yet, training for employees is really an essential part of employee development. Any company that wants to develop its employees needs to set up a strategic training plan to ensure that the employees and company benefit from any training.

Training is crucial and should be included in any development plan for employees. Big organisations often send their potential leaders for personal development training in order to prepare them for a more important role. As for leaders, they provide coaching programmes in order to further enhance their leadership skills.

However, formal training programmes are only the starting point. What the employees have learnt from the training needs to be applied to their work. Only when the employees are able to practise what they have learnt and put the skills to good use in their jobs, can real training take place.

When employees go for training, do encourage them to share what they have learnt with their colleagues. This way their colleagues are also able to gain knowledge and it will also help them to recap all that they have learnt.

To develop employee problem-solving skills and the ability to think, assign work that will stretch and challenge them to go beyond their current limitations. When the employees are able to overcome their limitations and stretch themselves, they will discover how much further they can go and what their tolerance level is. The employees will also discover the areas that need improvement and the skills that they would like to acquire in the near future. They will have a better idea of the type of training that they need to attend for further personal development.

The best way to develop employees is to set an example be a role model. There is nothing more inspiring than having someone in the organisation who the employees can look up to and aspire to be. The model leaders pleasant attitude and constructive work habits will influence employees in many ways. Employees will strive to pick up the positive attributes of model leaders and seek personal development to become more like them.

When the company gives employees an opportunity to grow, they are helping to build them up to be more capable people. The employees will be more efficient in carrying out their work and achieve greater job satisfaction.

The company will also enjoy benefits as the employees are more productive and happier in the workplace. Employees are also more likely to stay on with the company as they can see opportunities to grow on a personal level as well as within the organisation.

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Continuing to focus on employee development