If you were given the choice between two different pilots—one was trained, the other not—which one would you choose? But what if there was no “up-front” cost for the untrained pilot? You still wouldn’t do it? Yet many business owners do not recognize the importance of employee training.
Most business managers wouldn’t hire unqualified employees. But so many of them do employ underqualified workers. Sometimes employees become underqualified due to changing technology or the development of new methods. Don’t get me wrong; training does come at a cost. The two biggest resources used for job training are time and money. Some of the excuses not to train are:
“We are too busy to learn something new right now.”
“We just don’t have the money to pay for training.”
Training employees costs time, money, and materials. Often, third parties are needed to conduct job training. Not only will there be missed time and unbillable hours, but there will also be additional costs. Another reason businesses often neglect to train employees is because of past training experiences. Sometimes the training was done poorly, or the topics just didn’t help. That could happen for several reasons. Failed training comes at a high cost, and businesses often don’t want to take that risk.
However, not training your employees also comes at a cost. Here are six reasons untrained employees can end up costing you more than trained ones.
1. Untrained Employees = Unhappy Employees. Employees who feel inadequate, underachieving, or unsupported are unhappy. They aren’t satisfied in their work, which will cause them to underperform, make mistakes, and not care about their work product. That costs the business in lost time and money.
2. Untrained Workers Have a Low Production Value. The quality of their work is lower and of less value. The quality in performance is lower than it could (or should) be.
3. Untrained Workers Are Inefficient. More time (and therefore money) and effort is spent when employees aren’t fully or properly trained to perform their tasks or to fulfill their responsibilities. It takes them longer to do the work.
4. Lost Time/Money Due to Mistakes. When an untrained worker makes a mistake, the time and materials used are lost. The work then has to be done again. Or worse, the inadequate product was delivered to the client.
5. An Increase in Miscellaneous Expenses. These are more difficult to track or attribute to untrained workers, but they are there. Creating a CAD drawing incorrectly means reprinting the file. That means it takes more time to fix the mistake, more materials cost in paper and ink, and more time rechecking the work. If it were done correctly the first time, these costs wouldn’t be there.
6. Lost Customers. Untrained employees can cause many of the mistakes listed above, and those mistakes and inefficiencies can cause your business to lose customers. That is the worst possible scenario, but it can happen.
Training programs and costs have an easily measured up-front cost of time and money. Those line items are difficult to handle on a tight budget. However, the costs of not training your employees can hurt your bottom line even more. These costs do not come in the form of line items, so they are often ignored or unseen.
Having a trained workforce means your workers are learning new skills that can improve production, cut time spent in creation of your product (or service), reduce production costs, reduce mistakes, build confidence in your workforce, and create a better working environment. An investment in your employees’ skill sets is an investment in your company. When everyone gets better, everyone gets better.
Has your business discovered the importance of employee training? Please share your experiences below in the comments section.
