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Benefits of Investing in Team Training

Picture of Marty Muse Marty Muse : Jul 22, 2021 10:32:55 AM

Benefits of Investing in Team Training

As the economy begins to recover, it is time for organizations to switch from conservation mode to investment mode. Those investments fuel the larger economy and lay the foundation for growth. One of the most impactful investments organizations can make in their business is the investment in team training.

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Typically, in periods of economic recovery, we see lots of capital investment. But the 2021 recovery is different because the nature of work has changed. Organizations will look to update internal processes or expand marketing to generate new sales. Video conferencing technology will be updated to accommodate needs for remote training, onboarding, evaluations, etc.

Team training covers a variety of training courses, exercises, or activities designed to improve an individual’s or team’s performance of work-related tasks by learning new methods, techniques, technology, or processes. Team training can be anything from introducing your team to new engineering technologies to helping them improve their soft skills.

Of the different areas where an organization can invest, why does focusing on training your team make the most sense? Let’s deep dive into 3 benefits of team training: (1) Performance, (2) Job Satisfaction, and (3) Market Standing.

Team training improves performance

People are one of the most valuable resources a business has, so it makes perfect sense that you devote resources back to them. Providing your team the opportunity to learn new skills and information, like ISO 26262 and AUTOSAR, will allow you to tap their full potential and empower them to do their best work.

Think of your organization as your car and your team as all the individual components under the hood. Regardless of what make or model car you have, it will eventually need a tune-up. Team training is the tune-up for your organization, a service you can perform on your teams to make sure all is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. As the automotive industry’s landscape rapidly changes, new methodologies are being adopted at rates not seen since the migration to vehicle electronics back around the turn of the century.

Studies have shown that introducing a team to new skills and techniques through training can help increase their overall job performance, specifically in the areas of soft skills, cognitive skills, task-based skills, and teamwork skills. Each of these different skill sets has huge value for organizations and empowers teams to perform their job at a higher level.

Emotional Quotient skills

Emotional Quotient (EQ) skills (you might know them also as “soft skills”) are skills such as, running effective meetings, identifying personality traits, adjusting behavior, communication, building presentations, etc. These skills are absolutely necessary to be effective in the workplace not only internally, but also when dealing with customers. Having a team that has been trained in EQ will help them to be more adept in front of customers and bring value into the organization by being effective cross-functional team members.

Cognitive skills

Cognitive skills are those all-important core brain skills helping you think, read, listen, and remember effectively. Building teams’ cognitive skills refined through training enables individuals to think critically and require less guidance and handholding, creating a less dependent and more proactive workforce. An engineering talent using cognitive skills is writing requirements. Engineers need to thoroughly develop a product’s design from conception through production and that success is driven by well-written requirements.

Task-based skills

Task-based skills are problem-solving skills that help individuals complete tasks quickly and efficiently. Task-based skills can better prepare teams to think on their feet when someone throws a wrench into a situation, requiring immediate action and decision making. Root-cause analysis is at the heart of today’s engineering and requires problem-solving skills rather than relying on the Internet for solutions.

Teamwork skills

Working within a team is an important aspect of almost every business. But, just like writing a group research paper in college, team projects can also be unpredictable. Honing teamwork skills such as, communication, delegation, listening, and collaboration can not only help your teams’ cohesiveness, but also helps to maintain a healthy work environment by circumventing issues that can lead to tension within a team.

Team training improves job satisfaction

Team training is obviously a great benefit to organizations. It has been shown in studies, that providing training for employees improves job satisfaction and creates a happier workforce. When an organization invests time and resources into developing employees, it speaks volumes in their minds. It shows, not just tells, that the organization values and cares for employees, empowering them to be a better version of themselves. Team training tells employees that they are respected and appreciated, two of the biggest factors that impact job happiness.

When employees feel appreciated and cared for, they like going to work each day, they want to work harder, they feel more motivated to do their best work, cultivating a more healthy and happy work environment for everyone. This kind of environment also helps an organization in two very important staffing aspects of reducing turnover and recruiting.

Reducing turnover

Happier teams will want to work at an organization longer, reducing employee turnover. Although turnover is a natural part of running a business, an average of 42 days is spent posting job openings, screening potential candidates, conducting interviews, and onboarding new employees…for each posted position. Having a happy team that stays put frees up managers to properly manage employees, meet deadlines, and decrease time to market.

Recruiting

If you have helped to establish a healthy and strong work environment, word gets out one way or another. So when employee turnover does happen, the open positions you post are more desirable and coveted, attracting more qualified candidates to your company. When you do have open positions, there will be no shortage of strong candidates to consider.

Team training improves market standing

If your organization is behind learning newer technologies such as ADAS and AUTOSAR, here is a little secret about your competition: they are training their employees.

If you are not investing training resources into your team, you will fall behind your competition. Devoting time to training your employees in the latest technologies and techniques is a key investment to keeping your organization relevant, competitive, and up to date against your competition. Training your team to use and adopt the latest tools, technologies, and methodologies creates opportunities to enhance skills for creating new services, giving your business a competitive advantage.

If you want to put your engineering team in a position to do its best work by giving them the training they need to be successful, LHP has you covered. Whether you are focused on ISO 26262, AUTOSAR, cybersecurity, or other embedded technologies, our standardized and customized courses and workshops will equip trainees with the skills necessary to navigate and meet increasingly complex embedded controls challenges. We have called the embedded industry home for 20 years, and our instructors also serve as our senior engineers — so they actually execute the same work they instruct.