How to Build High-Performing Teams Through Employee Training and Development

When accomplishing business-related tasks, few teams are as effective in reaching their goals than a high-performing team. Simply put, high-performance teams get results. A high-performing team can consistently deliver, despite the odds.

Developing such a team gives you the ultimate competitive advantage.

When a team is highly focused on achieving their goals, the employees, management, and customers benefit from it. Duties are shared more effectively, employee discord is diminished, and customers receive a more inviting corporate environment.

So what is the best way to encourage and strengthen your team? By utilizing employee training and development. Here are six ways to use employee training and development to build a high-performing team.

1. Prioritize professional skill development

Continuing professional development is perhaps one of the best ways to foster a better team. Investing in professional growth leads to many valuable benefits, including:

• Decreased turnover
• Improved workplace morale
• Staying on the cutting edge of new tech and trends
• A consistent level of training

Some ways to emphasize professional skill development are by introducing workshops such as public speaking classes or creative writing courses that allow employees to hone specific skills that benefit the company.

2. Use a structured employee onboarding process

Having a formalized onboarding process improves new hire productivity and manager satisfaction. A structured onboarding process enables new employees to transition to your workforce with the necessary training to positively impact engagement.

There are several ways to include a formalized onboarding process to build a high-performing team.

• One is by providing new hires with access to essential documents, resources, and information that set them up for success.
• Another is to assign a mentor for the first week or month to facilitate a seamless transition. A mentor can serve to check in on progress periodically and address any questions the new hire may have.
• Having training courses available for new hires can be useful in assigning tasks that plan out milestones and goals.

3. Implement cross-departmental training

Encouraging employees to engage and share with different departments in your company not only fosters a more cohesive work environment but also creates a more collaborative culture. Cross-departmental training helps your employees build stronger relationships, develop new skills, and encourage networking.

By tapping into your internal resources, employees can gain a better understanding of the inner workings of your company, which can help build trust and accountability, and helps each department focus on results.

4. Give employees resources

When employees have access to an online database of resources, they are equipped with the training tools they need to grow as a team. Having access to development and training activities that challenge them fosters an environment that’s conducive to learning and growth.

The classes and professional organizations they can join promote upward mobility, helping employees feel like they are succeeding. Internally, your company can schedule a monthly “Learn-at-Lunch” program that educates and trains employees on the latest trends and research.

Using the lunch hour to educate and train your employees with courses like digital marketing training can strengthen team bonding and stimulate employee engagement. An employee-led “Learn-at-Lunch” course, in particular, can be extremely useful in creating an engaging workplace culture that increases staff productivity, commitment, and morale.

5. Have regular reviews

While the implementation of traditional annual performance reviews has fallen out of favour in recent years, they are still important to the fabric of a high-performing team — particularly if done right.

Rather than focusing on rankings and cutting bottom-tier workers, performance reviews should focus on goals. Formatting performance reviews to ensure employees are being professionally challenged and praised for excelling keeps employees happy and appreciated.

Performance reviews are also a great time for managers and employees alike to communicate. This can be a moment to recognize areas or skills that require improvement. It can also be a time to introduce a tailored training plan that gets employees excited about the prospect of developing their skills.

6. Introduce a learning management system

Software that promotes e-learning help companies streamline and optimize employee training programs.

By implementing online corporate training, your company can create skill-based learning programs catered to your business’s specific needs. E-learning can significantly cut down on costs and time while increasing employee engagement.

A learning management system ensures employees are provided with a roadmap to success. A learning management system establishes a company-wide learning culture that empowers employees to improve their skills in an easy, accessible, and engaging manner.

Cultivating winning teamwork

Building a high-performing team is achieved by creating a framework built around employee training and development. Employee development fosters team members to grow individually while supporting each other’s goals and initiatives.

Employing the right training and development plan will result in a high-performing team racing towards a common goal.

AUTHOR BIO
With over 20 years of experience in B2B marketing, Annick Nuyens first worked in the hospitality service industry and then moved to the knowledge industry. She currently works for Informa in the Dubai office, where she oversees marketing for public and in-house training courses, conferences, exhibitions and managed events across the Middle East and Africa.