Mass Training's Top Tips for...

...Surviving a recession through training

1) Look to meet long-term strategic goals alongside short term business needs

With so many daily tasks to keep you busy, it can be difficult to effectively nurture the talent already in your organisation.

With clear business objectives implemented, always ensure that training and development needs are factored in across the entire company.

Plan for the future by ensuring that your business comes out of the recession with the skills it will need to utilise in a growth period. Think long term growth, not short term cost management.

2) Assign realistic resource and budget

Be realistic about the level of resource and budget available and factor these in throughout the year.

Nurturing existing talent through training and development is more cost effective than recruiting from outside.

3) Make the most of funding

There are many sources of finance available that enable you to train and enhance your existing resource without incurring huge expense.

Visit Train to Gain or Learndirect for further information about funding options.

4) Understand your employees' present skills and their development requirements

Identify your requirements by undertaking a Training Needs Analysis based on roles and responsibilities.

Plan how best to address any shortfalls and build a long term relationship with your chosen training provider as they will better understand your training and business needs.

5) Introduce an ongoing performance and development review

Undertake regular appraisals and set objectives linked to the business plan.

Identify any development areas that your employees will need to address in order to fulfil your business objectives.

Monitor progress against objectives on a quarterly basis to react to business needs faster.

6) Empower your employees

Delegation is the key to a successful organisation where those within the business can take on more responsibilities and become accountable for new areas.

Empower your staff to develop their own objectives and identify their development needs.

7) Implement a range of developmental techniques

Develop a cohesive training, mentoring and coaching programme to cover your employee and business needs.

8) Take advantage of flexible training solutions, tailored to your business needs

Make the most of the training options available to you. With e-learning, on-side and hosted on professional facilities, there are plenty of choices open to you.

Training programmes should work for you by being tailored specifically to your business needs. If sending staff off for days is difficult, find a training provider that can offer short workshops to break the topics down so as to limit the amount of 'downtime' for staff.

Build a partnership with your training provider to ensure that they understand your operational duties and business training requirements.

9) Don't let the economic downturn affect the development of staff

Training and Marketing budgets are often the first areas to feel the pinch when organisations are looking to save money.

However, the calibre of your staff will be more important and act as a differentiating factor between you and your competitors.

The cost of bringing in skilled staff through recruitment is far greater than nurturing existing talent from within.

Mass Training are professional training providers who work in partnership with Train to Gain to ensure that their clients maximise their employees potential without breaking the bank.

Our training programmes are flexible and derive from our clients requirements to limit the cost and time that enhancing skills can take.

To find out how Mass Training can support you and your business in surviving the recession through effective and tailored training please telephone us on 0118 977 8560 or email richard.milner@mass-plc.com.