Corporate Training Should Be Part of Any Long-term Business Strategy

Corporate training and IT training can help businesses markedly reduce costs in the long-haul and set aside funds to be invested in continuous improvement of staff professional qualifications thus boosting overall competitiveness of an enterprise. Evidently, most employers expect their employees to be familiar with business software suites that include word processing applications, spreadsheets software, and solutions to design presentations. Modern business software, however, include software systems that vary from content management systems (CMS) to customer relationship management (CRM) applications to complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, while these software solutions require extensive training to familiarize with the overall concept of the respective software and get best results.

Implementation of an ERP system can take months, even years, to complete and there is no reason to believe that even the most devoted employee will be able to familiarize with such a complex software application only by experimenting with various built-in functions. Corporate training is integral part of best industry practices when the matter in hand is implementation and adoption of new business software, while ongoing IT courses are a good method to keep employees in touch with newest technologies in a particular field of business. There is a good reason for such a continuous IT training, with the main driver being the ever changing business environment where enterprises increasingly rely on software solutions to take competitive advantage over their rivals. Modern-day businesses rely heavily on cutting-edge technologies, of which many are real-time or close to real-time technologies, and the lack of expertise in this field can have bad consequences for the business as a whole.

Usually, companies socializing in the field of software development and implementation of business software systems, also provide training courses that can be performed both on the premises of the customer or in a specialized facility as part of the software adoption process. Nevertheless, businesses can make a step further and invest in continuous education of their employees, achieving a higher level of faultless operation and enhancing overall business performance and productivity, which in turn results in better overall financial results. Furthermore, IT training can be performed in a manner to incorporate the overall corporate virtues, thus evolving into a broader corporate training whose aim is boost loyalty, strengthen inter-departmental and personal relationships across the entire organization, and, in the end, create a better work environment.

Self-confidence matters and it is counterproductive not to invest in training of employees who have difficulties dealing with a software system. Modern-day business software can be a thorn in the ass even for an experienced software developer, so the average employee should undergo proper corporate training before one would expect him or her to produce acceptable results and perform according to established corporate standards. An untrained employee lacks self-confidence and in turn the entire organization would suffer.

Advocates and critics of ongoing corporate training differ mainly on topics like what should corporate training cover, agreeing that corporate training is a best industry practice per se. That said organizations that have adopted corporate training and ongoing IT courses as a best practice are considered generally more competitive and prepared to meet the requirements imposed by an increasingly technology-bound business environment. Of course, investing in such programs should be financially justified but it is worth taking a look at reports revealing that a better educated employee is generally happier, more productive and less prone to look for a job elsewhere.

Various training programs can be used to increase employees’ motivation, which is an important factor to consider when assessing whether an organization is set to succeed or fail in the long-run. Love it or hate it but corporate training should be a major element of a successful business development strategy.