The Gift of Success

The Gift of Success

Considering what you can give as a corporate gift this year? How about giving the gift of success? Many of the larger corporates do this and have seen the huge benefits of enabling their clients success. How does one “enable success”?  By training and upskilling your clients in core skills like sales, time management, planning, team and leadership you give a gift that adds value to them and makes a positive difference in their organisation every day.

Training your team (or gifting this to your clients) has multiple benefits and creates a learning organisation culture.

Below a few more thoughts around the positive effects of training:

Increased business productivity and profitability

  1.      Training keeps corporate culture fresh by allowing new thoughts, ideas and possibilities to be considered
  2.      Training improves employee performance in quality, quantity, speed, safety, problem solving, attitude, ethics, motivation, leadership, and communication
  3.      Reduce the pressure on management as employees do not have to ask so many questions so interrupt less
  4.   Train people to think for themselves and to learn how to learn and apply learning
  5.      Training can help instil a learning organisation culture especially when there is an expectation that people will 'cascade train'    

Gives a competitive advantage

  1.      Training as a corporate gift has the ability to continue delivering results long after the actual event
  2.      Training helps increase productivity and employee development which in turn leads to increased profits and revenues
  3.      Keeping up with changing software programs, technology changes, customer service skills or leadership trends are examples of competitive advantages organizations can have with a well trained and skilled work force
  4.      In order to be more competitive, businesses need to have employees who can multitask in a multi-dimensional manner. Continuous learning is essential to gaining and maintaining a competitive edge in this area
  5.   When you see the value in each person in your team and you show it by choosing to invest in them you set a standard and expectation of how clients and peers should be treated    

Improved staff performance, retention and loyalty

  1.      Training increases team morale as it can teach people how to work with different personalities as well as show that the  company is prepared to invest in their people
  2.      Training improves team spirit and attitude as it gives new standards and increases expectations of individuals within a team - both of themselves and of fellow team members
  3.      Training will keep your employees motivated. New skills and knowledge can help to reduce boredom.
  4.   Training can help performance manage employees - equipping them with skills that it has been identified that they need

Improved customer relationship management

  1.   Trained team members have skills to manage difficult and upset clients and maintain customer relations
  2.   Trained teams communicate well and team members know which customers are Key Accounts and the service  levels expected ensure consistent client management
  3.      Additionally customer satisfaction improves as consistent and better quality work means better quality products and services = happier customers
  4.      Improve customer service with more knowledgeable and helpful staff who can meet the various demands of clients or customers. Make your team the “go-to” resource in your industry. Set you apart as the reference point – the knowledge base the specialist
  5.      Trained teams understand what makes the company stand out for clients – Your USP/POD (unique selling proposition/Point of Difference) and they buy into delivering this consistently.

Reduces Risk and exposure while improving succession planning

  1.      Training creates a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organisation
  2.      Organisations that are prepared to train are more attractive to prospective employees esp. when they can see internal promotions as a result of internal training opportunities
  3.      Reduce unexpected downtime by utilising a skills matrix and planning training time to ensure teams are multi skilled
  4.      Rotational training ensures that relationships with key suppliers and employees is not limited to an individual
  5.      When training is part of your culture people it helps people to be valued for who they are and what they bring rather than creating a culture of holding information in the hope of becoming irreplaceable.

There are two views you can take around staff training: “What if we train them, and they just leave?" or "What if we don't train them, and they stay?" – You choose!  I ascribe to the Richard Branson view.
