Training employees is essential
THE human and machine conflict is playing out more in the developed countries, where workers fear that the rise of artificial intelligence will ultimately lead to huge job losses. But not in developing countries where the workforce is integral to business operations.
Business is, however, constantly evolving, requiring different and new competencies depending on the field of specialty that it is invested in.
This means workers have to constantly upgrade their skills to become relevant, efficient and effective. Staff training therefore becomes a critical component of business. Experts often say apart from requiring new workers to undertake instruction in a new system, training that develops employees toward long-term career goals can also promote greater job satisfaction.
A more satisfied employee is likely to stay longer and be more productive, while a dissatisfied one cannot be expected to be as productive as it ought to be.
In some cases, such workers are even a threat to the business since - in extreme cases - they are capable of sabotaging it.
Sometimes employees become under-qualified due to changing technology or the development of new business processes.
Technology is changing at a faster pace and the more businesses are resistant to change, the more they are likely to stay behind. While the private and public sector must embrace technology, there is need for complementary investments to upgrade employees so that they become compatible to the expectations of new business world.
Recently, Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe announced that it will be migrating to a paperless system, which naturally implies that its workers have since been trained to transition to the new system. It is all about adapting. Again, it highlights the importance of training.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority also recently introduced Value Added Tax agents who withhold two-thirds of output tax, which means companies with complex accounting systems will need to be trained with efficiency on how this move will impact on their accounting system. Training presents a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of all employees, but many employers consider this as an extra unwanted cost to doing business, which is quite unfortunate.
However, despite potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the company and individual employees with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment.
Employees with no knowledge of what they are doing can be a huge cost to a company.
It is often said some organisations can view training as a waste of time for various reasons.
Businesses often neglect to train employees because of past training experiences.
Sometimes the training was done poorly, or the topics just didn’t help.
That could happen for several reasons. Unfortunately, failed training comes at a high cost, and businesses often don’t want to take that risk.
Human resource experts say employees who feel inadequate, underachieving or unsupported are likely to be unhappy.
They may not be satisfied in their work, which will cause them to underperform, make mistakes, and not care about their work product.
That has a monetary cost to business in terms of lost time and money. It is also unsurprising that these employees not productive.
It is bad to assume that an employee with so much education can be competent at work.
With so much education, practical training is important as this minimises risks of making costly mistakes to the business.
Untrained employees are an expense as 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.
Untrained employees can cause many of the mistakes that are mentioned above, and those mistakes and inefficiencies can result in your business losing customers.
Although this is the worst possible scenario, it can happen.
Training and costs have an easily measured upfront cost in terms of time and money, which makes them unattractive to businesses, many of which are struggling to sustain operations, especially in the current difficult operating environment.
But there is an even added cost that often results from poorly trained staff, and this cost is difficult to quantity and measure.
Quite clearly, having a trained workforce means workers are learning new skills that can improve production, cut time spent in creation of goods and services, reduce production costs, reduce mistakes, build confidence in the workforce and create a better working environment.
Learning and upgrading employee skills makes business sense.
Although it may take some time to see a return on your investment, the longterm gains associated with such an investment can surely make a difference.
Further, such an investment gives rise to a competent workforce that it capable of driving the company forward.
Training employees make life easier for the employer. It will free up time for the employer to focus on expanding the business and rather taking much time performing tasks which the employees are ordinarily expected to do.
Untrained employees can cause many of the mistakes that are mentioned above, and those mistakes and inefficiencies can result in your business losing customers.
Taurai Changwa is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe and an Estate Administrator. He has vast experience in tax, accounting, audit and corporate covernance issues. He is a director of Umar & Tach Advisory. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted at tauraichangwa1@gmail.com <mailto:tauraichangwa1@gmail.com> or or WhatsApp on 0772374784.