Training employees is seen as an unnecessary expense in many small businesses, but well-trained employees are a key factor in business success. Failure to provide training typically leads to employees that are less motivated, less engaged, less productive, and more likely to leave your company. 

Here you'll find some tips on training your workforce affordably.

1. Going Out: Seek Outside Opportunities

First of all, you can find many affordable training opportunities outside your company. For example, industry associations may offer in-depth training programs to association members at low rates or at no cost at all. They also hold special events and tradeshows. Most trade associations will maintain websites where you can subscribe to newsletters, view event schedules, and sign up willing employees for training programs.

Furthermore, conferences and seminars will cover specific topics that might benefit your team members. Many of these events are free for members. So don´t wait any longer and send your employees out of the company to get some relevant yet affordable training.

2. Staying Put: Learn Through Collaboration

Another cost-effective option is to stage your own in-house seminars. Senior employees with more advanced skills can instruct others in a relaxed, familiar environment. Mentoring programs can also be arranged that pair new hires or those lacking in certain abilities with more experienced employees.

Identify those employees with unique job skills and devise training programs that create a platform where these skills can be taught. You may have to provide them with incentives or compensation, but this is still less costly than contracting with professional trainers.

Another alternative you might like is to send managers or supervisors to formal training programs and have them teach these skills to your other employees. This way you're only paying for the training once, but communicating the lessons to all team members.

3. Relaxing and Enjoying: Brown Bag Lunches

"Brown bag" is a reference to bringing a packed lunch to work. To get the most out of it, you may use lunch hours to create an informal setting where employees can listen to speakers or follow demonstrations. Provide advanced notice of when and where the training session will be held, and interested employees can simply show up with their lunch in hand.

Depending on your needs and resources, you can hold these lunchtime seminars on a monthly or weekly basis to reinforce principles or demonstrate new techniques or equipment. Apart from lunchtime, it could also be shorter sessions on breaks, after work, or weekend social events where refreshments are served. This is a good way to get team members involved and help them build personal connections with one another.

You could also organize these team building exercises as conferences where employees talk about their roles in the company, the challenges they face, and provide each other feedback. This lets employees get a better sense of the overall mission and the issues that others deal with. Coordinating social events that teach both knowledge and collaboration strengthens employee bonds and gives them the chance to learn and have some fun.

4. Using Technology: Explore Online Educational Opportunities

E-learning solutions provide a flexible and effective means of teaching skills. Structured lesson plans on various subjects can be purchased or accessed online at low rates, including interactive quizzes and augmented reality graphics that make learning more fun.

There are also both free and paid options through Massive Open Online Courses and training sites devoted to certain skills and subjects. You can sign up various team members for specific sessions or continuing coursework. One of the best benefits of educational technology is that the lessons are available 24/7 to fit individual schedules.

Other benefits include the ability to automatically monitor progress, repeat training modules as needed, and immediate access over any internet connection. Companies can easily incorporate MOOCs into their training regimens. Many of these learning systems, such as Moodle, are free open-source platforms.

Your organization may also fulfill a need with just-in-time training approaches like Skill Pill, which provides motivational and instructional videos on a variety of skills. These can provide employees with a quick introduction or refresher course before tackling new roles or projects.

5. Playing Games: The Value of Gamification

Gamification implements gaming techniques into entertaining learning applications. Students and trainees are motivated to learn through achieving higher "scores". Gaming formats like navigating obstacles or solving puzzles engages employees more than traditional learning formats.

They feel a sense of competition driving them to learn more, while improving their concentration and problem solving skills. The immersive gaming experience also improves the retention and recall of information. Employees can take satisfaction in their own progress through earning more awards or badges, appearing on leaderboards, and moving on to more challenging levels.

Gamification also involves a self-diagnostic element. Learners can receive instant, automated feedback on the state of their knowledge and the choices they've made.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, your business goals will determine your training needs. The teaching tools you use must be relevant to your industry, reasonably budgeted, and effective with your employees. Of course, your training methods must also be measurable and consistent to track progress.

So, explore your options, choose the one that suits you best, and start educating your employees today! As shown, you don’t need to blow your budget to do that.