If the success of a company is dependant on its employees, it makes sense to ensure that employees are as skilled as possible. Employee skills development is a tried and tested method to make sure that both your company and employees grow together. However, inadequate training incurs costs well beyond the expenses shown in the annual budget.

Inadequate training refers to any training that does not meet the company’s needs, both in terms of quantity and quality. This means that quality and quantity can’t be overlooked when identifying your optimal training requirements. Let’s take a look at the opportunity cost of low-quality and infrequent training.

• • Having to hire external management
    Hiring strong outside management costs more and it usually takes longer to yield results as the manager needs to integrate with the company and their new team. The best companies find a way to grow their management from within. This ensures that the company culture remains strong and provides internal career pathways. Management skills are not something you are born with, but rather something that is developed. Management training can help you foster the future senior managers of your company.

• • Wasted time
    Nobody ever seems to have enough time to get all their work done. Sending employees on training that does not provide significant value not only reduces employee engagement but costs the company the time employees could have spent working.

• • Loss of customers
    Well trained workers deliver higher quality work. This results in increased customer acquisition and retention rates. Not maximising your employee’s skills with frequent and impactful training is costing you large amounts in foregone revenue.

There are trade-offs in every decision we make, but sacrificing quality training has extremely negative long-term impacts on your business. If you are interested in reducing your opportunity costs, request a consultation with a Red & Yellow training advisor. We will work with you to ensure you optimise your training spend.

Steven is part of the Corporate Training team at Red & Yellow Creative School of Business. He is an avid reader (currently reading “Imagine It Forward”), loves to spend his Saturday mornings on the golf course, and runs a job shadow programme for underprivileged school pupils in his spare time.