IT skills and support for your staff

Information technology (IT) training can help your staff be more confident and comfortable using IT. This can lead to numerous benefits to your business, including:

• increased productivity
• greater efficiency
• improved bottom line
• quicker adoption of new technologies

Due to the costs involved, user training and systems support are often seen as additional overheads. However, you need to invest money in both of these areas to ensure the success of IT systems.

Benefits of IT training and development for staff

There are many potential benefits of investing in the IT skills of your workforce. For example, staff training and development:

• helps your business run better - it makes your staff better equipped to use computer systems, handle customer enquiries or make a sale
• helps staff acquire new skills - this can increase their contribution to your business, as well as their self-esteem and personal development
• enables staff to undertake new and different tasks - this can lead to job enhancements, promotion and increased motivation and job satisfaction
• helps staff gain confidence in their use of IT - this can increase their productivity and efficiency
• makes the transition to new IT systems and technologies easier - for both your staff and customers
• makes your staff feel appreciated - they will see you investing time and money in their professional development, so retention and morale can increase

Risks of not investing in IT training

If you don't give your staff adequate IT training, they may not be able to use your IT systems efficiently. This can potentially lead to:

• business operations being disrupted
• efficiency and productivity falling
• staff becoming frustrated and unhappy
• deadlines being missed
• the business losing confidence in the new system

The more effort you put into training and supporting your staff, the greater the rewards will be in the end. See more on the types of IT training available.