Employee Training Is Key To Business Success

The key to success in business is to achieve continuous improvement in all processes through learning.

Learning and development is a critical tool in operational efficiency and it also contributes to employee retention. It equips employees with leadership skills and operational efficiency during uncertain trends in the market. Providing an opportunity for employees to enhance their skill set and automatically improving productivity and morale.

Employee satisfaction and learning is closely linked. Each company needs to look at its existing manpower and create programmes that find resonance with employees across the board. It is critical to have a clear idea of the skills and practices the organisation can most benefit from.

Any employee engagement activity needs to address the concerns of all. A critical aspect of this engagement includes equipping the workforce with the necessary skills to enhance their existing expertise as well as upgrade their knowledge. The continuous learning process builds motivation and also facilitates greater employee involvement in the growth and progress of the company.

Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group (ESAG) has sought to achieve this through a Learning and Development Centre (L&D Centre) which offers a range of training programmes throughout the year that focus on functional as well as soft skills teaching modules. We also provide English and Arabic learning classes for all employees. The centre hosts various forums for sales and retail staff as well as for our female workforce.

L&D ambassadors (entity based individuals nominated to promote learning initiatives amongst staff) and an internal pool of trainers are fundamental drivers of learning at ESAG. While a combination of formal, informal, mandatory and customised programmes help reinforce the habit of effective ‘self-learning.’ In a span of two years we have successfully trained more than 70 per cent of our workforce through programmes that offer soft skills, functional and technical topics to ensure consistent delivery of work performance.

Recently we also introduced the latest tools in assessment and talent development to enhance talent acquisition activities, succession planning and learning progress of an employee.

The aim is to create entrepreneurial leaders who mould tomorrow’s anticipated challenges and market opportunities in the region. We require such leaders to break new grounds and focus on business expansion and innovation.

The most successful organisations do not leave teaching to chance, but strike an appropriate balance between the emphasis given to formal learning in classes and to learning ‘on-the-job’.