Improving Business Performance Through Training

Effective training teaches tools and techniques to be implemented immediately and continuously to produce instant improvements in the performance of the business. Compared with other opportunities, training offers potentially the quickest, lowest cost, lowest risk method of improving your business with no increase in liabilities. Training works both to grow the business and make it more efficient. In addition, training increases the benefit of every other investment you can make.

By Bruce Caswell

Improving business performance in the North East is perhaps the most significant factor capable of transforming the lives of the 2.6 million people who live in the region. Of course, inward investment will always be important and the new motorway when it comes will undoubtedly make a difference. But for the vast majority of businesses, these factors will not make the difference between success and failure. The destiny of most businesses lies in the hands of the Owners and Managers that run them.

Consider these headline facts about the North-East compared with the rest of the United Kingdom. It is suffering the lowest regional economic growth (.6% against 2.2% for the country as a whole) and has the highest regional unemployment (7% against 5% nationally). North-East business failures at three years are the highest in the country and the rate of new business start-ups is the lowest. The need to improve business performance is urgent.

When we think of improving business performance there are, broadly speaking, two areas we look at – growth and efficiency. And there are various methods all of which have the potential to either grow a business, improve its efficiency or both. Here is a short list.

· Recruitment

· Product development

· Investment in IT

· Investment in new plant and machinery

· Expansion of premises

· Acquisition

· Training

Every method will mean something different to every business. But all businesses should evaluate each method against the following criteria.

· How quickly will the benefits be seen?

· What will the costs be?

· What are the risks?

· What are the liabilities?

Compared with other opportunities, training offers potentially the quickest, lowest cost, lowest risk method of improving your business with no increase in liabilities. Training works both to grow the business and make it more efficient. In addition, training increases the benefit of every other investment you can make.

But, as many businesses have found, training does not always improve the performance of your business. This is because of an almost universal misunderstanding of how training works and what makes training effective. Effective training is not a one-off event. Effective training is a continuous, never-ending process. Improving business performance is not a one-off event either. Business performance is likewise improved on a continuous basis. We didn’t learn to drive nor play the piano after one lesson. Training and improving business performance is the same.

True, we occasionally make a quantum leap which radically changes everything. But waiting for the next quantum leap is like putting all your money on the lottery and ignoring the benefits of compound interest, which, as Albert Einstein observed, is possibly man’s greatest discovery.

Effective training teaches tools and techniques to be implemented immediately and continuously to produce instant improvements in the performance of the business. This involves getting people to change the way they do things immediately. Once the new tools and techniques have been practised, then comes an intellectual understanding of why they work. Many people have the intellectual understanding of how to do something, but their inertia and a natural unwillingness to change prevents them from actually changing what they do. And so performance does not improve.

So, if you want to improve the performance of your organisation quickly, cheaply and with the least risk – start training today.

Bruce Caswell is an Associate of the Institute for Independent Business.