The Most Common, Different Types of Training

When many companies look to hire new staff, they usually have a series of qualifications they need each applicant to meet before they grant interviews. They make their selection, do their entrance training, and then expect that the new hire will settle in and be as productive as possible as soon as possible.

On the surface there is nothing abnormal or wrong about this scenario. The issue is that dropping a new hire into real-time, imperative situations—the trial by fire scenario—may not be the best way to get them up to speed. In this month’s newsletter, we are going to discuss how creating a sustained training platform can actually have a marked effect on your business’ ability to stay secure and productive. 

Different Avenues of Training

The first thing that should be mentioned is that dedicating a lot of time and resources to employee training can definitely become costly quickly. It is definitely one factor into why many businesses have a lackluster training platform. There are five major types of training that most organizations offer, they are:

Orientation

Every business has some form of orientation. This is a short run down of the expectations of an employee by management. Orientation will show new hires all the relevant information about what it means to be an employee at the company. Some businesses go into detail about things like the company mission, values, corporate culture, leadership information, employee benefits, administrative procedures, and any other tasks that need to be completed before any actual training begins. 

Mandatory

There are some things that workers need to know, regardless of the position they hold. Some mandatory training is dictated by federal and state governments, while others are strictly industry-wide points of emphasis. Public-sector jobs often are required to take occupational health and safety courses. This practice is becoming more and more prevalent in the private sector, as is sexual harassment training.

Onboarding

Onboarding is different from orientation. When you are onboarding your employees, you train them in the specific duties their job entails. This could be training on the software they’ll need to be accustomed to using, or training on how your business wants them to complete specific tasks. The idea is to make new hires as effective as possible, as quickly as possible. Some jobs come with a half-a-day of onboarding, while others take over a year to complete. 

Operational Skills

Skills training is designed to enhance an employee’s ability to do the work, or to fill in other positions in your company. There is soft skills training and technical skills training. Soft skills training is designed to improve an employee’s ability to interact with others; and, with the company. These skills include:

• Presentation and communication
• Problem solving
• Conflict resolution
• Time management
• Collaboration
• Emotional intelligence
• Adaptability

Studies have shown that a dedication to soft skills training works to resolve the normative problems with high turnover and unsuccessful collaborative culture.

Technical skills training improves the technical proficiency of an employee. Any time employees can get better at the technical aspects of their jobs, it improves the products and services the company they work for delivers. 

Security

These days, with the circumstances that modern workers have to consider, security training is an absolute necessity. Not only does it improve employees’ ability to protect business assets, it ensures that they are aware of the potential problems that today's business is exposed to. 

Physical security training is typically limited, but if it is a major part of a person’s role within your company to keep assets secure, they should be given the information needed to accomplish this task. 

What’s more likely is that each person will need to take part in cybersecurity training. Digital assets are routinely targeted by people inside and outside of your business, so knowing how to protect them is a major point of emphasis that decision-makers have to consider. The average worker needs to know how to identify a phishing attack, the best practices of data transmission, and what are good and bad practices when interacting with cloud-based and other online-based resources.

At Macro Systems, we know just how imperative cybersecurity is. Our team of professional IT technicians, and our dedication to helping businesses keep hackers from negatively affecting business, can go a long way to help you establish the training platform you need to keep your business' digital assets secure. Call us today at 703-359-9211 for more information.