Richard Mullins

Richard Mullins

Ongoing training is at the heart of any effective organisation's success. This is especially true in the fast-moving world of online marketing, where technology constantly changes and where people stay in their jobs for shorter periods.

So it makes sense to invest time and effort into creating a sound training infrastructure for your organisation. In a world where people are more mobile, investment in training will help you attract and retain staff.

One of the most consistently mentioned draw cards for job seekers is training opportunities.

Many benefits are derived from a substantial company-training programme. If employees are properly trained, they will do their job more effectively and with fewer mistakes. This makes them and your company more valuable to clients and ensures that you provide better service.

A solid and well-implemented training strategy can also save time and money and enable you to grow in size quicker. Trained people feel competent and are far more likely to stay with you. This feeling of competence is empowering and empowered employees are fulfilled ones.

Developing a training strategy is time consuming and can seem like a daunting task. Developing effective training programmes require an advanced product and technical understanding coupled with the ability to think like a novice.

Not everyone has the same background understanding and it is important to approach training with the appropriate levels of empathy, attuned to the needs of trainees. Follow these basic steps:

lDefine what you need to know. Break down the knowledge into basic, intermediate and advanced grades.

lDecide whether you have the skills, expertise and time to offer internal training or whether you should outsource your training.

lEnsure that your team is trained regularly because both your business requirements and what your technology can do change over time.

lMeasure the effectiveness of your training. You might not see the benefit in revenue right away, but other ways to measure effectiveness are the time taken for a new staff member to get up to speed and the improved accuracy of work.

l Richard Mullins is a director at Acceleration.