Creating a highly competent and skilled workforce is a common ambition that all organizations share. In the ongoing era of enormous competition, organizations show a sense of urgency in bridging the skills gaps within their workforce. This is where employee training comes into the picture.

All organizations offer some form of training modules and programs to their employees. Besides, it is also true that employee training accounts for a significant part of the operational expenses of organizations. To elucidate, as per Indeed, the average cost of training per employee is around USD 1200.

Even if your business is based on one of the low investment business ideas, you still need to ensure that you keep the operational costs down. Sometimes, the operations costs can be far more overwhelming than the cost of starting a business. Therefore, leveraging any possible reduction in employee training costs should be on your priority list.

Suppose you wish that eagerly, you can make things work in your favor. In this article, we shed light on how small businesses can cut down on employee training costs. In addition, the report offers important and rational ways to keep training costs in check. So, let us get started without further delay.

Five ways small businesses can reduce training costs

1. Delegate responsibilities

Are you comfortable delegating authority and responsibilities as a leader, or do you like to keep the entire control to yourself? If you are not embracing the charm of delegating, you may miss the trick as a leader. The fact is that you cannot do everything on your own with identical efficiency. Besides, why would you want to do everything independently when you have a team of talented individuals?

When you delegate tasks and authority to your team members, you offer them an excellent opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge. Furthermore, I bet people learn in a more holistic way when they learn from real situations rather than classroom training. Let us take an example to substantiate this argument.

Let’s say you need to train your team for PHP development. Do you think classroom training on PHP can be more effective than actual PHP tasks? When employees are given practical exposure, they learn more wholesomely. The best part is that many classroom modules can be replaced with on-job training that you offer through delegation.

You can indeed cut down the exorbitant costs of employee training. Besides, not only can delegation help you bring down the prices, but it also helps you foster high engagement. To explain, when you delegate responsibilities, you show greater trust in your employees. Therefore, your delegation acts will be heartwarming for your employees as they will promote greater trust and acceptance.

Because of this trust, they will feel greater zeal and motivation to make a positive difference. To validate, as per Harvard Business Review, employees in companies that thrive on high trust manifest 76 percent higher engagement. Moreover, in such companies, employee productivity is 50 percent higher.

As a small business owner, you can gain big from little acts of delegation. The greater your effectiveness in delegating, the better the results. Charging can be an excellent cost-cutting strategy for your operational costs.

2. Introduce mentoring programs

Mentoring programs are a big hit in the contemporary corporate world. From small businesses to the leading global corporations, all businesses are investing in mentoring programs. Push Far shows more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. Additionally, 93% of SMBs see great scope in mentoring programs for upscaling their business success.

While mentoring programs have multidimensional business benefits for small businesses, a considerable reduction in employee training costs is outstanding merit. To explain, mentoring arrangements in the workplace promote a more organic approach to employee training and development. Employees learn from the first-hand experience and expertise of mentors who have spent years in their field.

Hence, not many classroom learning modules will be needed in a more natural, organized, and continuous learning environment facilitated by mentoring. You can replace a few learning modules on a few hard skills and soft skills with thoughtful mentoring programs.

Moreover, employees will be more comfortable seeking assistance and guidance in mentor-mentee relationships. If they are only going to look at you as a boss, they may not have the same confidence while seeking practical advice from you. Therefore, it makes complete sense for small businesses to introduce meticulous mentorship programs.

From effective knowledge sharing to cultivating a greater sense of belonging in the workplace, you can build various competitive advantages for your business through mentoring programs. The key is to identify the skill gaps and knowledge gaps in your workforce and create particular mentoring programs to fill these gaps.

You will not need to develop separate training programs that add to operating costs. Instead, you can spend this money on leveraging business growth with R&D spending increasingly aggressively over time.

3. Invest in Learning Management System

When it comes to disruptions in education and learning, LMS is among the most progressive advancements. As a result, the global learning management system market is soaring as more businesses subscribe to LMS integration. To explain, as per Fortune Business Insights, the global LMS market is projected to reach USD 40.9 billion by 2029.

LMS solutions for employee training can enhance training outcomes in an incredible way. Besides, LMS solutions are among the most cost-effective employee training and development approaches. As per Finances Online, 41 percent of business organizations have successfully brought down employee training costs with the integration of LMS.

Besides, LMS solutions also offer the scope for gamification in employee training, consistent tracking of learning outcomes, and creating personalized courses. LMS can make employee training far more effective, accessible, and comprehensive. This is one investment in the best interest of your objectives of bringing down operational expenses. The sooner you integrate LMS solutions for employee training, the more beneficial it will be for your startup.

4. Encourage leadership opportunities

The fact is that you cannot groom leaders via classroom training programs. Leaders are born out of real situations and rise to the occasion to display great leadership traits. Therefore, all organizations need to identify great prospects for leadership roles and groom them for the future.

This explains why most organizations have leadership development programs that can indeed cost a lot. However, I am trying to say here that you can groom your future leaders more practically by promoting leadership opportunities in the workplace. Expose your leadership prospects to real situations where they have actual leadership responsibilities to take care of.

A leadership opportunity can be as simple as leading one of the employee engagement activities in the workplace. The idea is to groom leadership abilities in individuals by expecting them to deliver in actual leadership roles. More importantly, in this way, you will not need to invest in excessive leadership development programs. With these additional cost savings, you can cater to other aspects of operational obligations.

Besides, your sincerest employees will view leadership roles as a great career advancement opportunity. This will further cultivate a greater sense of satisfaction among employees. As a result, you can reap more significant benefits in higher engagement and retention.

5. Shift training modules to the virtual mode

It is a well-known fact that physical training programs come with high costs of logistics and hospitality. If you are conducting training sessions over days, you have no choice but to bear these costs. However, you can save all these expenses thanks to technology by completing online training.

Interestingly, around 90 percent of employees want to access training material anytime and anywhere. Lorman further states that 85 percent of workers wish for autonomy and flexibility in learning at a time of their own choice. Moreover, 90 percent of business leaders and employers see great scope in switching to mobile-based employee training.

Therefore, as it is evident, switching to virtual training sessions is a win-win situation for all. From your employees’ perspective, they can access virtual training sessions at all times and can even learn on the go. Besides, if you look at it from the operational aspect, virtual training can be a great way to evade logistics, stationery, and hospitality costs.

Probing further, Upskilled also reveals that e-learning modules can help in enhancing learning retention by 60 percent. Besides, online learning and training also allow employees to access learning resources as often as they want. Otherwise, they cannot have round-the-clock access to lectures in physical coaching sessions.

So, the bottom line is that not only will online training help in cost savings but will also enhance learning outcomes in the organization. With online training modules, employees can learn consistently and incrementally.

Conclusion

To encapsulate, employee training is a salient operational aspect for all business organizations. To create a competent workforce, each business must invest in employee training programs and bear the same costs. It is also true that these costs can be pretty overwhelming for small businesses. However, even though employee training cannot be overlooked, a considerable part of training costs can be saved using the above approaches.

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