Hey small business owner: Just because you don’t have a large budget for training your staff doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train your staff. In fact, it’s even more important for you to train your staff, because every member of your team has more than 1 job function, and because 1 untrained employee can cause untold harm to your customers.

Rather than tell you every reason you need to train your staff, I’m going to focus on the top 5 little known benefits to training your staff.

5 Little Known Benefits to Training Your Staff

Helps staff understand your expectations – Does your staff know that you expect them to greet customers within 60 seconds of walking in the door? Do they know you want the phone answered on 3 rings or less with a “Thank you for calling your business name, it’s a wonderful wine day, how can I help you?” Has this knowledge ever come from you, or has it just been passed from new employee to new employee, getting more watered down each time it got shared? Training is an easy way for you to explain all of these expectations with your team.

Helps staff become aware of (and learn) new tools and technology – Has your point of sale software changed even a little bit in the past 6 months? Is there a new handout you created to explain something many customers have asked about? Have you changed your company website at all? Added any social media to the mix? Has the maximum for requiring a signature for credit card transactions changed? Sure your staff could tell each other, or you could put together a 1 page overview that you give each employee when they start on the day the change is made. And for many, that’s enough. For some employees, they will have questions, have some comments and concerns (often from customers), offer ideas on how to improve things, or simply not understand exactly what has changed. A short training session with your employees can be just what you need to get everyone on the same page.

Helps staff understand the bigger picture – Your small business has rules and regulations. Do your employees understand why? Do they know the difference between something you want them to do (though very important) versus something the law requires they do (critically important and could put you out of business, and your employees out of a job)? A short training session can be used to very effectively explain new laws and any new standards you’re requiring of your employees – as well as the why behind them.

Helps develop shared vocabulary – If your small business uses any industry specific words, a short training session is perfect for teaching (and refreshing) the vocabulary of your team.

Helps reset expectations – Things change. And the longer time your staff is employed by you, the more things will change. Training allows you to say, “We used to do it this way, but now we do it this way.” It allows you to reset expectations and helps your staff focus on what’s most important to your small business.

And one more benefit to your small business training your staff:

It sets you apart from your competition – Many small businesses only train staff when they start, and then they never follow-up with the employee on any of this. If your competitors aren’t doing it, you should be doing it, to retain the best talent, and to stay ahead of your competition.

How can you develop a training plan for your small business staff?

For starters, check out this helpful article at Business on Main.

Also, stay tuned to this site. I’ll be sharing my insights into HOW you can train your staff on a shoestring budget later this week.

Does your small business train your staff? If you do, I’d love to hear about the benefits you’ve found from training. Please leave a comment on my site, and we can learn from each other.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis.