Good employees are hard to find. In modest or prosperous economic times, they’re even harder to keep. Companies focus on customer loyalty because it has a direct impact on a company’s revenue. What many don’t recognize is that focusing inward on employee loyalty can also have a significant effect on the bottom line.

Happy workers are productive workers
Even though it sounds a little dystopian (see “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley), it’s true. Everyone likes to be recognized for their contributions. Showing appreciation for anyone’s efforts – be it an employee, an outside agency, or your favorite barista – increases your emotional bank account with that person. They’ll go the extra mile for you when you need them to. Don’t get me wrong, thank you’s are wonderful, but they’re also easy. Sometimes appreciation needs to be more involved, more tangible.

Investing in your employees through continuing education and training is one way to show them that you value their contribution to the company and want to continue their growth. The type of training is important: sending someone to a class on Appropriate Behaviors in the Workplace is probably not going to win their undying loyalty. Neither will classes that are fundamental to doing their job competently and safely, like forklift operation or electrostatic discharge best practices. If someone shows a passion for a technology or process that can benefit the company, even if it’s outside of their job description, try to cultivate it.

Many people in today’s economy are “self-managed,” meaning they’re responsible for coming up with their own performance objectives and seeking out training opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but sometimes it’s inspiring for someone to say “I want to send you to this training class, because I see an untapped greatness in you that I think you should develop.” Helping an employee find those classes is another small way that you can increase their loyalty. Here’s a few other secondary benefits of continuing education:

• Employees are usually inspired when they return from training and you often will see an uptick in their output and efficiency
• Training costs are low compared to having a leg up on the competition with new and emerging technologies
• Training costs are also negligible compared to the time, effort, and financial cost of finding a replacement employee

Is the grass always greener?
Some employers argue that sending people to training increases their marketability and thus are more likely to quit. In some cases that’s true, but it’s probably because that employee has already passed the tipping point of retention. Once a person has built up such a negative view (think “bank balance”) of a company, whether for real or perceived issues, there’s little you can do in the short term to make them content in their current situation. As a leader, you need to stay in tune with what each employee’s “bank balance” looks like.

High performing employees want to be part of making a business excel, whether it’s superior products, new ideas, or amazing customer service. Training classes can help them get there, whether they’re of a technical nature or soft skills. You can even use “training” courses as incentives – like a trip to a Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp, or High Performance Driving school (it’s “training” in the loosest sense).

Training at Biamp
We feel it’s important to understand how to use our products most effectively, and Biamp has a rich heritage of providing in-depth training to our partners around the world. Our free classes are taught by our own Application Engineers, audio experts who will share best practices to help you save time during installations, and minimize post-installation troubleshooting. We can help you better understand the ever-elusive Gain Structure, or how to properly set up Mix-Minus, for example.

Check out our website to get more information about our training classes and other education resources, including our training videos. We have all of our currently scheduled trainings listed, but check back often as we’re regularly adding new dates.

What kind of training classes do you want to attend?