Few things are more nerve-wracking for the owner of a small business than the sight of idle or under-utilized employees. And it's tough on staff, too, who find it disconcerting at best, demoralizing at worst, to have their routines up-ended, to just fill time while they worry about the business and their own livelihood.
Training staff while it's slow is a great way to keep staff engaged and improve the workings of your business. It can be all done online so you can keep employees on the premises and avoid travel costs, and the additional good news is that there are free or low-cost resources available to you.
The Innovators Forum, aimed at small business, isn't endorsing any of these outfits and I can't attest to the content, but here are some very interesting opportunities to engage and improve your staff.
SBA: The SBA (Small Business Administration) provides quite a number of classes in categories of Starting a Business; Surviving in a Down Economy; Business Management; Financing and Accounting; Marketing and Advertising; Government Contracting; Business Planning, Ecommerce, International Trade; and Federal Tax Training.
Edcomp: A "free computer training search site is now online, containing over 150,000 free educational, training and tutorial web resources, all at your fingertips. Also search for computer programming and software development sites. Check out our predefined search page for faster access. If you're an Intelligentedu.com Member, go to our member search page to access this special page to search over 220,000 free training web resources."
Business Training Library: There are fees associated with these classes, but they provide video-based training programs and courses in leadership, ethics, motivation, time management, sales and marketing and many others.
The E-LearningCenter: This site provides a number of free courses and paid courses as well. Free courses include training in Office, A+, MCSE and HTML.
IntelligentEdu: This site is a mash-up of links to free online IT classes and will send you a monthly newsletter that gives you a list of new free sites.
Tips for Making the Training Count:
When you're considering offering training to your staff, keep these tips in mind:
* Think carefully about the skills that your business needs now and in the future and prioritize those.
* Plan a growth path for your employees and train your next set of managers in leadership and time management
* Consider whether providing personal growth training for problem employees could increase productivity
* Assess whether training an internal employee could reduce your dependence or expenses for outside consultants or service providers
* Be sure to look at your veteran employees and consider a knowledge transfer to less experienced workers. This can bolster the morale of the veteran, build team connections, and reduce your dependence on individuals if it's handled well.
Training staff while it's slow is a great way to keep staff engaged and improve the workings of your business. It can be all done online so you can keep employees on the premises and avoid travel costs, and the additional good news is that there are free or low-cost resources available to you.
The Innovators Forum, aimed at small business, isn't endorsing any of these outfits and I can't attest to the content, but here are some very interesting opportunities to engage and improve your staff.
SBA: The SBA (Small Business Administration) provides quite a number of classes in categories of Starting a Business; Surviving in a Down Economy; Business Management; Financing and Accounting; Marketing and Advertising; Government Contracting; Business Planning, Ecommerce, International Trade; and Federal Tax Training.
Edcomp: A "free computer training search site is now online, containing over 150,000 free educational, training and tutorial web resources, all at your fingertips. Also search for computer programming and software development sites. Check out our predefined search page for faster access. If you're an Intelligentedu.com Member, go to our member search page to access this special page to search over 220,000 free training web resources."
Business Training Library: There are fees associated with these classes, but they provide video-based training programs and courses in leadership, ethics, motivation, time management, sales and marketing and many others.
The E-LearningCenter: This site provides a number of free courses and paid courses as well. Free courses include training in Office, A+, MCSE and HTML.
IntelligentEdu: This site is a mash-up of links to free online IT classes and will send you a monthly newsletter that gives you a list of new free sites.
Tips for Making the Training Count:
When you're considering offering training to your staff, keep these tips in mind:
* Think carefully about the skills that your business needs now and in the future and prioritize those.
* Plan a growth path for your employees and train your next set of managers in leadership and time management
* Consider whether providing personal growth training for problem employees could increase productivity
* Assess whether training an internal employee could reduce your dependence or expenses for outside consultants or service providers
* Be sure to look at your veteran employees and consider a knowledge transfer to less experienced workers. This can bolster the morale of the veteran, build team connections, and reduce your dependence on individuals if it's handled well.