Training is one of the activities that is often underestimated both in terms of growth and personal satisfaction.
For an SME it is essential to maintain an standard training inherent, not only the legal obligations (privacy, safety), but above all the professional knowledge of the operating personnel. The basic training usually includes the most common tools used in the company: office package, internet and e-mail, operating system.
Without forgetting the specialized training related to the type of business of the company: the operators must be periodically updated on new tools and working methods.
We distinguish two types of training: external training and internal training.
External training includes all those refresher courses provided by external consultants on innovative arguments that must be included in the company: from the office package to the use of a particular numerical control machine, from how a good internet search is carried out to how it is managed a company. Internal training is maintained by internal staff and focuses on the standardization and dissemination of company production procedures and processes.
YetiForce allows you to build, maintain, compare and disseminate corporate knowledge through specific modules.
It is very important to agree and disseminate correctly the operating procedures, both to the operators already present in the company, and for those to come: having a centralized tool that can be used by the new staff, to acquire knowledge about company processes, involves a considerable saving of time and costs. Documentation that can be consulted and evaluated by staff, helps to perfect and consolidate the quality of the procedures, thanks to suggestions and proposals.
In my experience, alongside SMEs, I realized that, very often, production difficulties are linked to a lack of management, rather than to market difficulties.
I'll explain. I argue that preserving current customers is much more important than financing large marketing and commercial activities to win new customers. Attention: I'm not saying that acquiring new customers is not important, far from it: without new acquisitions there would be no expansion.
But losing customers makes vain the effort to search and conquer new customers, at least in part.
Maintaining and retaining current customers is the result of analysis both by the management team and by the personnel themselves if adequately informed and prepared with periodic training.
The transition from a limited company size to a larger one (for example from a small to medium-small business) requires an assessment of business processes and a reassignment of the roles of competence and operational tasks: becoming aware of this reality has fundamental importance and requires specific training. When we are small, when the number of personnel is limited, the type of management tends to be "invented", "homemade", based on unstructured tools, but efficient for current conditions. When the business grows and an ever increasing volume of business is acquired, management methods must be adapted adequately so as not to incur into customer dissatisfaction with a consequent loss.
When you are small, everyone must know how to do a little of everything and everyone is an operator and self-manager. This arrangement is functional due to its small size, but it becomes counterproductive if the amount of customers to manage and satisfy increases over time: often when it is time to "jump", it is not easy to understand, especially when one is suffocated by too much inadequately managed work; an analysis from the outside is often a key help to become aware.
In other words, the more one grows, the greater must be the operational specialization that must be supported by processes and tools suited to growth.
A topic that is often underestimated concerns the role of the owners of the company: as I said, in small companies, everyone must know how to do a little of everything and everyone manages themselves. Growth implies, willingly or not, the identification, within the company, of a management group, usually represented by the owners of the company. Perhaps the most burdensome change in terms of personal effort: from an operational role to a management role. Here, as in no other case, it is essential to take training courses on what it means to run a growing company.
Training is key to good growth and to maintain adequate production standards and, last but not least, individual satisfaction, both for the management and the operational group.