The Benefits of Employee Training and Development
By Michael C. Dennis, MBA, CBF

There are numerous benefits of investing in employee training and development, including:

1. Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees. This has an added benefit of making your company more attractive to prospective employees.
   
2. More motivated workers, which in turn tends to increase productivity and spur profits.
   
3. More effective and efficient use of workers' time as a result of higher skill levels, combined with a better understanding of the job function.
   
4. Employees who know they are competent, and therefore feel more confident. Self assured, well-trained employees are important in the debt collection function.
   
5. An increase from employees in the number of ideas, recommendations and suggestions for improving performance, or processes and procedures.
   
6. Lower overall employee turnover, and less absenteeism.
   
7. Investing in employee training enhances the company image as:
   
   • a good place to work
     
   • a company that offers its employees the opportunity to grow and meet their individual goals and aspirations
     
   • a company that values employees
     
   • a company that nurtures its employees
8. Creating a pool of cross-trained employees can bridge gaps when someone unexpectedly leaves the company - or if they accept a transfer or a promotion.
   
9. Doing so tends to create more efficient employees that require less supervision and who need less detailed instructions. This frees management's time for higher value added activities.
   
10. Employees that receive in houses training tend to be better equipped to adapt to changes and challenges facing the credit department in particular, and the company as a whole.

Department managers must determine where training is needed. It is usually a poor use of resources to implement a department-wide generalized training program. Scarce resources [such as a training budget] should be allocated where it is most needed. If the company's training budget permits each employee to be trained, then training should be customized to [a] the needs of the department and [b] to the skills and aptitudes of each employee.