Running a company is mostly about managing people and a vision. The vision is the end-goal, and the management is the way to get there. As a business leader, delegating tasks and working with different personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and skills.
Whoever you are working with and whatever your vision is, training your employees well is half the battle. When you have well-trained workers, you will worry about them less, make more time to do big picture work, and be able to delegate tasks more effectively. Below are five areas of the workplace that require training.
Cyber Security
Cyber security is both one of the most important parts of running a modern business and one of the least accessible. Few people understand cyber threats and even less understand the security necessary to combat them. That’s why most companies hire an information technology (IT) team to train other employees on these matters.
If you don’t know much about cyber security yourself, you should make sure that someone who does is training your staff. For example, the basics matter. You need to have anti-malware, firewall, and antivirus on every device. They need to know the dangers of downloading unknown attachments and clicking on unidentifiable links. You might not think it’s necessary to train everyone on cyber security, but you won’t be saying that when you have a compromising breach.
Diversity/Sensitivity
There has been a huge revolution in the way that diversity and sensitivity to racial, sexual, and other identities are approached in the workplace. Despite the controversies, diversity and sensitivity training aims to educate people about their own blind spots. We all have them.
To work in a respectful, comfortable, and welcoming environment, your employees need to be trained on how to treat others. This is not ideological or philosophical training, it’s about respect. When you are working with a large team, it’s even more necessary to make sure that everyone has been trained on proper diversity and sensitivity measures.
Sexual Harassment
Another part of the workplace that has changed drastically is sexual harassment. Years ago, it was normalized. Not anymore. However, everyone should be properly trained on these issues. There are many types of workplace sexual harassment, some of which fly under the radar. It’s vital that everyone at your business get the same training to know when behavior is inappropriate and when people should speak up about these kinds of behaviors.
Furthermore, this training provides an avenue to explore how to raise concerns about someone’s behavior. It can be very complicated. So, to create the most welcoming work environment and productive company, sexual harassment training is compulsory.
Product/Service Training
It doesn’t matter what you do at your business, every employee should be trained in your products and services. Even if the person doesn’t work directly with a product or doesn’t perform the service, it’s imperative that they know about it.
Not only does this improve customer service overall, but your employees will be able to direct each other to other employees to get things done. When you are selling people something, everyone involved with the business needs to believe in it. Make sure that everyone knows about everything you do. It will make a difference.
Collaborative Training
Finally, one of the most important and overlooked areas of training is collaboration. This is especially pertinent when you are working with a variety of teams. Of course, you need teams to be focused on their tasks, but you also need them to be able to work together.
Collaboration can not only make a product, service, idea, or practice better, it can make the process faster. You will also get to a point where micromanagement isn’t necessary at all because your teams will have the freedom and room to grow.
Workplace training is paramount. It is the most vital part of running a successful business. When everyone is properly trained, you don’t have to worry about them getting their job done.
Accountability and follow-up are vital, but if you already have your team trained you won’t need to do the work that they haven’t done. So, to create the most success make sure your employees are trained in all of these areas. You wont regret putting the time in.