Corporate training: What is it, and what are the benefits?

A company can carry out many activities that result in significant advantages and benefits for the individuals who work there, both personally and professionally.
Such activities, often neglected or done with shallowness, can produce essential transformation when correctly implemented. We are talking about corporate training programs.

The 5Ws of corporate training

Who initiates it?

Training programs are offered to employees by their companies. Companies can devise them or ask professionals to take care of them.

What is it?

Corporate training consists of courses to improve, widen, and update employee’s knowledge and skills, increasing their expertise and allowing the company to keep up in various ways.

Where does it take place?

It depends on the choices of the company, the employees' needs, and the partners who support these programs. Some courses take place online, letting the employees decide where to attend. Some programs are delivered in person, either from the office or at an external partner. In addition, blended learning is also possible!

When is it offered?

Corporate training is offered when it becomes necessary to achieve further improvement within a company; for instance, in the case of a new launch, a new software, an internal change, or when it is essential to enhance some specific skills or capabilities. Every occasion is a good occasion!

Why should one offer it, and why is it important?

Firstly, it helps employees bridge their gaps, develop hard and soft skills, and widen their abilities. It is stimulating and gratifying to work for a company that believes in its employees and bets on them.

Lastly, it allows the whole business to level up.

Training programs as a corporate welfare measure

Corporate welfare refers to all the measures that a company can—or, in our opinion, should—use to increase well-being in the workplace.

Does corporate training enhance corporate welfare? Yes, definitely.

Not only does it improve skills, but it also contributes to making participants feel gratified and esteemed as professionals and individuals.

However, we will never give up repeating that training programs should have correct implementation and concrete goals to deliver positive results.

What not to do and what to avoid if you want to achieve effective training

We grouped four common mistakes that companies often make when planning training programs. We suggest you start writing down what you should avert before organizing your next training opportunity.

1. Keep away from low-quality training.
   Needless to say, mediocre training—not thought out and carried out with no objectives—often results in low-quality performance. We know that finding competent training organizations takes time and is anything but easy; however, here is where companies frequently fall. Do not prefer quick solutions to high-quality programs.

2. Aiming at feasible objectives.
   When planning a training program, goal evaluation represents a key element. The risk is improving the employee or business performance. What do we mean by that? The mistake lies in the expectation of seeing such results quickly and noticeably a few days after the training ends. Ambitious goals, unreachable in the short run, prevent you from understanding whether the program bears fruits.
   The best choice is picking clear and easily identifiable objectives, knowing that results will gradually manifest themselves.

3. Do not be skeptical of the possibility of change.
   Believing that training will not help or lacking interest in novelties may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the managers are discouraged about the effectiveness of a course, employees will probably attend with carelessness, without the desire to learn new skills or—more importantly—the right motivation. Consequently, the program could result in a complete waste of time for most attendees. On the other hand, trust and positivity are important, even essential, for the training to be successful.

4. Long-lasting results to make the change effective.
   Concepts need to be assimilated, skills perfected, and updates applied: but what if a week later, everything goes on as before? Then, training turns into a temporary and useless experience.
   Every piece of information can produce positive results but requires rapid fulfillment, even when it entails significant changes in the work routines.
   An effective way to make results durable is having employees attend a program with colleagues in the same team, so as to promote exchange and increase mutual support.

Each to their own benefit: the employee’s point of view

Corporate training can positively impact workers’ professional and personal spheres. Did you know?

On the one hand, training programs help acquire hard and soft skills and expand specific technical competencies; on the other, they improve communication skills and motivation, making employees feel understood by the company, the employer, and the managers.

Each to their own benefit: the company's point of view

We want to stress that collaborating with employees who are motivated, up to date, and capable of balancing professional and personal life cannot but be beneficial for the company. Nevertheless, there are some particularly evident advantages to consider:

• Increase in competitiveness.
  Training programs allow companies not only to stay up to date with the latest news in the sector but also to pursue continuous innovation.

• Boost in internal productivity.
  By enhancing the mix between hard and soft skills and improving capabilities (professional and managerial ones), people tend to work better.

• Reduction of employee turnover.
  Feeling part of a team, part of the whole working environment, and feeling trusted is much more stimulating than being regarded as a mere number. Here is the difference between longing for something and perceiving it as feasible and doable in the workplace, resulting in fewer resignations and constant hiring.

• Goal-oriented development.
  Have you set feasible objectives that are achievable in the short run? Great, reach them and gradually and patiently build up more significant results.

Do you see how many positive factors and benefits for your company come from investing in human capital? Corporate training represents a forward-looking investment.