Why Employee Training-development is Vital for your Startup Growth

When a new hire joins a company, it’s natural to have them shadow a senior employee to learn the ropes. This employee can build off of past experiences to communicate best practices to the new hire - they know what works! Large companies can often afford to have “orientations” to train large groups of new employees at once, all being onboarded within a specific program.

With a startup - this gets more complicated. You might have a smaller team or limited resources. And while you might know what’s working for you right now, you don’t have long term best practices in place yet.  Hopefully you’re hiring an A-Team of individuals who can help you establish a strong brand. But no matter how strong a candidate they are coming in - you still need to invest in training for your team. Here is why employee training/development is vital for startup growth:

1. Helps Create a Future Leadership Team

As your start-up sees success, you’ll likely being adding new facets to your business which require additional team members - and this means new management. You COULD hire from the outside- but wouldn’t it be easier to promote someone in your organization? Current employees will already be familiar with the day to day of your business. 

But not all employees will thrive in a management position. Investing in ongoing development from day 1 will help you discover potential leadership candidates, and help prepare them for a day to move up.

2. It Attracts Good Talent

Successful people want to go somewhere where they can grow and nurture their career. If your business offers solid training and consistent development, that is going to be attractive. Now this position is beneficial to both parties, because the new hire can learn valuable skills and in turn use those skills to better the company.

It’s also going to make you look more reputable to potential employees because it shows professionalism.  A focus on training and development says a lot about you’re the values of your business and an appreciation for good talent. This can be especially helpful as a startup, because you don’t have the same brand recognition as a more established company.

3. It Promotes Productivity 

Identifying great talent, interviewing them, and onboarding are all important. But if your employee is not productive - was any of it worth it? A fast training process may take less time - but a full-time employee works hundreds of hours every single week! So, if a proper training program results in even 1 percent more productivity, that’s going to account to a huge number of productive hours when you look at the numbers months or years down the line. 

4. Improved Performance Management

Firing an employee is not easy for either side. When you onboard someone, you believe they will be an asset to your business and want to see them succeed - because their success means your success! But if an employee does not understand the parameters for what success means in their position - they’re more likely to fail.

Training allows an opportunity for you to clearly communicate expectations. Without these guidelines, a great employee might simply focus on the wrong aspects of their position, or not understand they are doing poorly at all! If you want the best chance for both parties to grow, this communication is key.

There is no denying that training/development is an investment of both time and money. It is not cheap to take time away from daily operations to focus on a new hire. Every hour they are spent training is an hour they aren’t working towards profitability. But the benefits outweigh these costs. If you are focused on the future of your business - you are focused on the future of your employees.

About Nick Rojas

Nick Rojas is a business consultant and journalist who lives in Chicago and his hometown Los Angeles with his wife. His work often discusses social media, marketing, and branding in regards to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).