The following is a guest article by our good friend. Mynda Treacy

What the Corporate’s Know about Training That Small Businesses Don’t.

We’re busier than ever and the economy is in a downturn.  The initial reaction is to cut spending and refrain from any unnecessary expenses.  Many businesses view training as an expense, but the Corporate’s know this is not the case

Large corporate organisations measure the results of training spend and they know that for every dollar they spend on training there is a direct impact on profit.

Just take a few moments to consider these results:

Higher Profits

• The Cheesecake Factory, one of the most successful restaurant chains in the U.S., spends about $2,000 per employee for training each year and reaps sales of $1,000 per square foot—more than twice the industry average, and they have an employee retention rate of approximately 15% higher than the national average.

• Based on the training investments of 575 companies over a three-year period, researchers found that firms investing the most in training yielded a 36.9 percent total shareholder return as compared with the 25.5 percent weighted return for the S&P 500 index for the same period. 1

• Just a 2 percent increase in productivity has been shown to net a 100 percent return on investment in training. ²

Lower Employee Turnover

• Career development is the No. 1 factor in employee retention. ³
• According to a study by Louis Harris & Associates for Interim Services Inc., companies that fail to train their employees are more than three times as likely to lose them.

• In an AON survey, respondents ranked “opportunities for personal growth” as the main reason they took their current job and stayed in that job. Significantly, they ranked it ahead of salary.

Cost Reductions, Increased Productivity and Quality

• Motorola calculated that every dollar spent on training yields an approximate 30 percent gain in productivity within a three-year period. Motorola also used training to reduce costs by over $3 billion and increase profits by 47 percent. ⁴

• The less time and money you have to spend on monitoring and guiding employees, the more you have available for other activities.

• Training improves customer satisfaction. Better-quality work means better-quality products and services . . . resulting in happier customers.

Training improves a company’s competitive edge.

• Keeping up to date keeps you competitive.

• According to Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, “Any company has to recognize that not only is the human capital of their employees a major asset, it is also a depreciating asset that needs continuing investment.”

That’s not to say that any training is good training. It’s important that the training undertaken is in line with your business plan objectives, whether they be to increase productivity, cut costs, or improve customer service to name a few.

One area small business can benefit greatly from training is with Microsoft Office products since they can be used to streamline processes, improve communication and increase productivity.

With the vast majority of Microsoft Office users having never had any formal training it’s an easy area to gain some quick productivity improvements, and with the introduction of online training what was once only available to those with big budgets is now available to all at a fraction of the cost and inconvenience.

To get you started you can get over 10 hours of free Microsoft Office online training at http://www.MyOnlineTrainingHub.com

“What’s worse than training your workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.”

—Zig Ziglar, success speaker

1. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).
2. “The 2001 Global Training and Certification Study,” CompTIA and Prometric.
3. According to a survey of 6,400 employees conducted by consultants Sharon Jordan-Evans and Beverly Kaye.
4. Tim Lane et al., “Learning to Succeed in Business with Information Technology,” Motorola.