You get out what you put in; and more

You may have heard of the phrase "Knowledge is power" by Francis Bacon and however theatrical this sounds, there is a great deal of truth behind it.

When it comes to the knowledge held by employees of your business, this is extremely important. 

From a HR perspective, improving the knowledge of your employees around topics such as their job security, product and process knowledge and many other aspects can actually increase employee motivation, employee happiness and reduce employee turnover. These are undoubtedly extremely positive for a business and it means that the company itself can improve and progress.

In addition to this, while you may spend money on these elements to keep your employees happy, the benefits can be sought financially in other areas. It is much cheaper to retain and train an employee to mould into your business' needs than to have to employ someone new. One thing to consider is that when an employee leaves your business, it is not just the person-power that you are losing but also the skills, knowledge and training invested in that person over the time that they have been with you.

From a product and processes perspective, training your employees is also extremely beneficial because a competent workforce in processes key to a business' success will ultimately increase productivity and profitability.

Legislative and legal training is also one of the main areas that can make or break a business' success. Training your workforce to understand any legal changes in areas that are key to your business is extremely important because legality is very often black or white. You are either compliant or non-compliant and if you fall on the side of the latter, you can be fined.

The research shows positive signs for businesses going forward with training. 92% of businesses surveyed by the British Chambers of Commerce said that they had skill shortages within their workforce and 80% of those businesses plan to undergo external training over the next year.

In addition to this, almost two fifths (39%) of businesses explain that they will invest over £500 per employee on training.

One of the major updates to legislation in recent times is the workplace pension reform, more commonly known as auto enrolment. The new legislation is extremely complex and requires that all employees that meet a certain criteria must be auto enrolled into a qualifying pension scheme. This legislation, along with the capacity crunch (the squeeze on available resources for auto enrolment as more businesses stage) is proving to be difficult for many businesses are we are experiencing more and more people benefiting from our IRIS Auto Enrolment Training.

According to our own research of people that attended IRIS Training sessions; via webinar or seminar; 95% of them said that the training met their requirements. In addition to this, 91% of people said that they would recommend IRIS Training to a friend or colleague.

With 71% of businesses saying that they will be using an external, private training provider, IRIS Auto Enrolment Training is extremely accessible for all businesses with our location seminars and online webinars for you to choose from.

Employee training is an essential part of the business. Small businesses can take advantage of our employee training software which works with IRIS HR Pro. Larger businesses should take a look at IRIS Cascade HRi's training management add-on.