Most people know that having good employees can make or break any organization. To top it off, high employee turnover can be one of the hardest things to overcome and deal with. It may seem that our best leave and our worst stay.

If funds are limited, what can we do to increase our likelihood of keeping or creating those rock stars that make everything tick? Training is one of those ways. Investing in our teams by helping them to develop their skills can be so powerful. There is nothing like additional training to boost performance, build skills and show our team members that we really care about their success. Because let’s face it, few employers have ever really become successful without the help of a few good men and women.

Creating learning opportunities for our teams might sound like an expensive proposition, and it can be. But truth be told, it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few ideas that can help encourage your team to learn and develop while keeping your budgets in check.

1. First, ask each team member what their goals are. Not just for their current job, but for their life. Find ways that you can help them towards those goals even if it means they will leave you. One example might be that if a team member wants to learn a new software program that will help them to do graphics, give them the opportunity by investing in online training (inexpensive if done through a service like Lynda.com). Maybe this skill does not directly help them in their current job but you may be able to leverage this skill in other ways that can benefit both the employee and employer. This is a win-win for both.
2. Second, subscribe to online training programs such as Skillsoft, Lynda.com (mentioned previously), or Codecademy.com. These are inexpensive and open up a huge amount of training opportunities from management, telephone and customer service, graphic and video production to computer programming. Help your team find additional skills that they can learn that will benefit them now and in the future.
3. Third, invest in an in-house library of good books that your team can borrow. Great if you can discuss what they learned from the books and help them apply the principles to their lives and their jobs.
4. Fourth, find experts that are local to you. They might even be within your own company. Let them help and mentor your team members. Although this may be inexpensive, it does take time and coordination. Do not underestimate the power that peers can have on helping to develop your team members.

When we are learning, we have an excitement about life and everything around us. Just being around team members who feel valued and want to grow can be reward enough for making the extra effort to create lifelong learning opportunities.

By: Kristy Bloxham, PhD.