Every organization can benefit from proper employee training. If you think it’s less expensive to hire someone new instead of continuing to train your staff, you’ll be sad to learn that’s wrong. US companies spend some $90 billion dollars in 2017 on staff training. The cost of training and developing a new employee is about $1,208 per new employee. As a small business, every penny counts and spending excess dollars on hiring new employees can put you in the hole fast.
Think you don’t have enough time to invest and train your current staff? Think again.
Benefits of Investing in Your Staff
- A Competitive Advantage: Talent competition is at an all-time high. Meaning, talented employees are constantly being scouted by other companies. Making an employee development plan a part of the benefits of your company is a good way to attract and retain talent.
- Increased Employee Loyalty: If your staff knows that you’re invested in their professional well-being, they’re more likely to remain loyal to your organization. While they may not say it outright, many companies have a disposable mentality that employees can pick up on. If your staff knows that you’re invested in them, they’ll be invested in you and your organization.
- Decreased Turnover: Turnover can be very expensive. Especially for small businesses. A high turnover rate can reduce morale, the quality of care and service, and disrupt short and longterm goals your organization has. Decreasing turnover can help to keep everyone on track and focused.
Set Clear Expectations
One of the easiest and most effective ways to invest in your employees is to set clear expectations. When the staff doesn’t have a clear understanding of their purpose, they can’t fulfill their purpose at your organization. Taking the time to outline clear expectations of each role in your organization will not only help them, but it’ll also help you, too.
However, understand that expectations will evolve as your organization evolves. With this in mind, it’s important that you update expectations as your staff and organization evolve.
Prioritize Work/Life Balance
As you probably know, building a business doesn’t leave much room for sleep or fun. But that doesn’t mean your staff needs to suffer also. Prioritizing work/life balance helps promote healthy boundaries and mindsets regarding your organization. Healthy work/life balance keeps your staff motivated, invigorated, and focused on the ultimate goals; both at a personal and professional level. Make sure that staff feels comfortable taking vacations, sick days, and if they seem overworked, offer time off.
Integrate New-Hires Quickly
No matter the amount of time and money you put into investing in your current staff, eventually, you will need to hire new-hires. In order to make new-hires the most productive and feel comfortable in your organization, integrate them quickly. This means including them in staff meetings as soon as possible, introducing them to current staff, creating ice-breaker opportunities for them, and ensuring that they have a point of contact for any questions or concerns they may have during their initial onboarding period.
Use the Buddy System
Did you know that 70% of employees believe that having a buddy at work makes a difference in their happiness level? Try pairing your new-hires with seasoned employees to help make their transition easier and more pleasant. Utilizing the buddy system with new and seasoned hired can help everyone. Besides, the workplace is more fun with a friend!
Wrapping Up
As we end our “how-to” series, we want to thank you for following along. We hope that you were able to learn something new and share your newfound knowledge with your staff and peers in the pet care industry. If you’re interested in contributing to our blog, please reach out to [email protected]
