All aboard the train to success!

Great employees are one of the most valuable assets your business can have — to succeed, you need people with the right mix of skills, knowledge and abilities. Creating an employee training plan can help ensure that all employees are given the tools and knowledge they need to successfully carry out their duties.

An employee training plan can help your business by:

• Making new employees feel confident and comfortable in their new environment and giving them the skills and knowledge they need
• Encouraging continuous learning and helping existing employees deal with change
• Streamlining your training process

The following steps will help you create an effective employee training plan:

Identify your needs

• Define the roles and responsibilities of each team member
• Identify any training requirements for your type of business (e.g. safety procedures such as WHMIS training or food safety training)
• Look at training requirements driven by change (e.g. new technologies)

You may also want to involve your employees in the process — ask them if there are particular skills they would like to learn.

Select type of training

Now it's time to look at your options. What kind of training best suits your needs? Common types of training include:

• Online/computer-based training (e-Learning)
• Mentoring/job shadowing
• Formal training courses in the workplace or at an external location

You may want to consider sharing the cost of group training with another business.

Create a plan

Once you have defined your needs and looked at types of training, you will be ready to create your plan:

• Set clear goals for knowledge, skills, and abilities to be learned
• Tailor training to the needs of each employee (e.g. improving the essential skills of new or existing employees)
• Connect learning activities to the job at hand

Remember that as your business matures, the range of skills your employees need will grow and change. It's important to revisit training plans and keep them up to date. Visit the Training employees page for more information on how you can set your employees up for success.