Many of the most successful small businesses recognize that it's not so much what workers know when they’re hired that shapes the company's future. Rather, what they learn during their tenure with an employer stands out as most important.
This means that the most crucial knowledge, best practices, and tips and tricks your employees have up their sleeves come primarily from your business’s training and development program and the emphasis on learning in your company culture. Most large firms already have those elements built into their infrastructure, but implementing professional development is often easier said than done for small companies.
Training and Development for Small Business
We get it. When the focus typically stays fixed on getting as much work done as possible to keep the lights on and budgets are limited, most learning is done “on the job” — and structured development options often sit on the back burner.
But employee training is almost always worth the time, effort and cost. It can teach your staff new, more efficient techniques and arm them with knowledge they may not come across while performing their daily duties. It also helps with retention by showing staff that there’s a career path for them with your company and keeping them happy and engaged with their work.
Here are a few training options that tend to work well for small companies, along with their advantages and drawbacks so you can pick which ones might be most effective for your teams.
In the traditional and most familiar form of training and development, employees gather in a room or on a virtual conference call and are led through the program by an instructor. These sessions can occur on- or off-site and can be facilitated by trainers who are either employees themselves or outside specialists.
Pros — The main advantages to in-house training and development include its convenience and that it provides ample opportunities for group interaction and gives instructors a chance to motivate the group and address the individual needs of participants.
Cons — In-house training can require administrative support, such as coordinating schedules, arranging training spaces and other logistical steps. There’s also often a fee for bringing in outside experts.
You can encourage employees to attend specialized workshops related to your business that are organized and run by training and development companies. These seminars are usually held at a public site, such as a hotel or conference center.
Pros — Public seminars require little or no administrative support. The per-person cost is usually reasonable. Plus, the official agenda and presentations aren’t the only places where learning happens, as participants can learn just as much — and sometimes more — from casual chats with other attendees.
Cons — Many public seminar offerings are, by necessity, generic. Topics covered don't necessarily have targeted relevance to your company. Another problem: inconsistent quality from one seminar to the next. But learning from other attendees can offset these drawbacks.
When dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people from an industry gather to discuss the latest and greatest about their field, attendees — even the foremost experts — can’t help but learn something. These conferences are usually held in conference centers in various cities.
Pros — The learning happens everywhere, from planned sessions talking about new and upcoming advancements to the lunchroom, where colleagues from all over the country share information about everything from best practices to worst ones during impromptu conversations. Also, those who attend can share their learnings with the rest of the team for no extra cost.
Cons — Industry conference generally require travel, and the price of admission can be high. Cost-saving measures are possible, such as having multiple employees share a single full-week pass.
Seminars and workshops offered by universities and business schools are targeted, in most cases, to middle and upper-level managers. They typically cover a wide range of theoretical concepts and practical pointers for putting these principles into practice.
Pros — Instructors are usually faculty members with a high level of expertise. These kinds of seminars are good opportunities for attendees to learn, network and share ideas.
Cons — Courses at the more prestigious schools can take managers away from the office for more days than desired. They're also often an expensive form of small business training. Choose these courses wisely — make sure that events cover management concepts and techniques that are relevant or applicable to your business focus and company culture.
The great payoff of e-learning is its flexibility and speed, delivering the real-time immediacy of classroom instruction without the need to actually be present in a classroom.
Pros — E-learning has a number of important benefits. For one, it’s widely available and often free or low-cost from highly regarded sources like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. Many industry-specific options exist, as well, and there are also professional certification courses. Other advantages include:
Vastly increased scope and reach of your corporate training and development effort
Greatly reduced or zero ancillary expenses of small business training, such as travel and lodging costs for participants
The ability for users to work at their own pace and convenience so they avoid downtime
Creation of individualized objectives and milestones to mark different levels of achievement
Easy ability to retrieve learnings and information from the course online
Cons — The downside of e-learning is that lack of human interaction and direct instructor involvement can hamper the learning process among people who aren’t self-motivated. Then again, that likely won’t be a problem for employees who are driven to succeed.
