Get the skills you need to grow your business and stay on top

The skills gap exists - it's official. So if you're one of the majority of small businesses that find it difficult to track down suitably-trained employees, or feel that you personally are missing skills in certain areas, what practical steps can you take to bridge the gap?

Identify your needs

You might know that your business is lacking a particular skill set, but before you fill it, ask yourself if it really matters? For example has your company recently expanded, somewhat ad hoc, into a non-core business area that doesn't reflect what it is you are really about, perhaps in response to one customer's
request?

A design agency specialising in printed leaflets, brochures and logos, for example, might find itself asked to design a website. Rather than spending money training staff on the finer points of HTML, Java, Flash and other web programming techniques, the agency should first work out whether this is an area it really wants to expand into permanently.

Can it compete with existing web design agencies? Is there more than one customer who is likely to want this type of service? Can it make money out of it? If not, it might make more economic sense to either bring a freelancer in or join forces with a web agency when needed.

Don't ignore what you already have

Your employees all have skills, talents, ambitions and dreams that you may know little about. Regular staff appraisals will help you identify these abilities and aspirations so that as your business develops you can train and encourage your staff to do the same, and profit from it directly. This approach has numerous advantages:

• It motivates workers and rewards their loyalty. Bringing in someone over their heads without good reason can do precisely the opposite. 

• It delivers a greater return on investment. Recruitment is expensive - job ads, agency fees, interviewing, induction process and so on - and then it may take a couple of months for him or her to really fit into the company, understand your quirks and relax into their role. Leaving that person to just do the role they first arrived to fill means that they will probably walk out the door sooner rather than later, and you'll have to start the whole expensive process all over again.

• It makes you an attractive employer. You may not be able to compete with bigger companies when it comes to remuneration packages but you can offer recruits the chance to get involved with all facets of running a business. They won't get stuck in a department black hole and will be able to see and participate in the entire operation - the all-hands-on-deck nature of most small businesses, make this inevitable.
  
  

Existing staff understand the nitty gritty of your business

While every business benefits from new blood and new ideas, every firm is also individual. Training people who already know the ins and outs of your business, means that they can adapt the training to the procedures and processes your business already uses. As a result, the new skills, ideas or methods should be much more rapidly and easily integrated into your business.

How to cut training costs

Training can be a heavy drain on two of the things small businesses are in shortest supply of - money and time. Traditionally you have to pay for the costs of the course and you may also have to provide cover for the individual while they are out of the workplace or away from their desk. There are a number of options however, that can help cut costs:

Learning and Skills Council - there is some financial support, help and advice available from a number of different organisations including the Learning and Skills Council and Learndirect.

E-learning - this method of training uses internet technology to download courses on a whole range of subjects. It allows people to fit the training into their daily schedule, is much less disruptive and is available 24/7 from the comfort of your own office/home PC. E-learning cuts the cost of travel and missing staff right out of the training equation and many providers offer a wide range of topics from IT to business skills and even include video presentations.

However, if you take this option, do allow the individual to block out some regular time to complete it. Don't just expect them to squeeze it into the probably non-existent gaps in their work schedule.

For more information on e-learning and how it can help you, visit our product and service pages.

Maximise your investment

Training doesn't end once the course is complete, so encourage the trainees to share their findings with other relevant workers.

Don't let them lapse into their old ways the moment they finish a course. Depending on the nature and scope of the course ask them to make three changes to the way they or the business works based on what they have just learnt.