What is internal training?

Internal training is an excellent way to stimulate professional development and also reveal true talent within the company, without having to go through onerous hiring processes.

Can you imagine how discouraging it is to work in a company that doesn’t care about internal training?

Whether because of management’s resistance to doing this type of action or even because it is not present in the culture, many businesses leave the professional development of their employees aside.

And we don’t even need to say that this is a mistake, do we?

The preparation of the employee to carry out their daily tasks and deal with customers effectively is extremely important!

This goes far beyond that first training done right after hiring .

Professional development must be continuous and fostered by the company. That’s what we’re going to discuss today here on the blog .

To ensure that everyone understands what we’re talking about, it’s important to immediately establish the concepts we’ve developed here.

Internal training is an action (or set of actions) promoted by the company itself with the objective of providing an environment for constant professional development .

Here the company provides the tools and all the knowledge necessary for the employee to succeed in this endeavor.

There are several reasons for a company to invest in this approach and certainly several of them involve reaping better results.

Another important point of this technique is that it partially eliminates the need to look for employees who are fully trained or who perfectly fit the role.

Looking at internal training from another angle, it totally changes the way recruitment takes place.

The paradigm leaves the highly technical skills and inserts itself in finding individuals with developed soft skills .

In the link above, we talk in depth about what soft skills are, but let’s leave the definition here: they are basic skills related to emotional intelligence such as resilience, empathy, collaboration and effective communication.

In this sense, it is easy to see how the company benefits from this type of promotion of professional development, since talent is not acquired, but created within the company.

However, there are still some concepts that we need to confront to ensure a complete understanding of this subject.

Internal training versus external training

We have already made it clear in this text that internal training is something completely promoted by the company , whether in terms of invested resources or (in some cases) even in the selection of subjects that will be worked on.

In a company that does not have a well-established culture of professional improvement, internal training is often viewed with suspicious eyes.

Many employees understand this situation as several mandatory training courses that do not always have an impact on performance or financial return . In other words, a complete waste of time.

This reaction also reveals a problem in the management of internal training, since it must be based on the team’s own desire to develop certain skills.

This is a very common case when the determinations are unilateral, not consulting the collaborators in order to understand their desires and find a compromise.

When there is this intention of professional improvement, the other side of the coin also appears: external training .

In this second case, the employee himself looks for knowledge outside the company and with his own resources .

That is, this action comes from one’s own motivation and not from a need of the company in which the individual works.

The importance of professional training 

One of the great difficulties of the company’s day-to-day is having talents capable of dealing with “wide markets, instant business information and globalized competitiveness” , as Martins et al says in their article on internal training .

All these expectations meant that businesses had to be inventive about the way they dealt with their employees. Here’s also a little help from the People First management model .

Whereas before the objective was to hire an employee with all the talents expected directly from the market, today, these skills can be fostered in the business environment itself.

And, of course, all this is only possible through professional training programs. It is in this environment that educational companies and corporate education emerge.

This training management model allows employees to be constantly renewing themselves and learning the latest market practices .

After all, we are living in an extremely fast-paced world and it is not feasible (or humane) to renew the staff every time market paradigms change.

But the benefits of taking this approach go far beyond the simple convenience of doing everything “at home”. And everyone involved (company and employee) can benefit from this vision.

The 8 benefits of investing in internal training

Internal training is more than a vision or a way of operating. It is becoming more and more popular, because it brings real benefits to both corporations and their employees.

Below we separate some of these advantages. Follow up!

The benefits for the company

1. Decreases turnover in organizations

Also known as the turnover rate , employee turnover is a serious problem in companies for numerous reasons , including:

• work overload on a few employees;
• decline in company productivity ;
• spending on new hires and their requirements;
• loss of credibility with partners and customers;
• bad reputation of the company, which starts to be avoided by talents available in the market.

These are just some of the problems that high employee turnover can bring to your company.

Bearing all this in mind, do you agree with us about the importance of having some policies that encourage the retention of these employees?

Well, this is exactly where an internal program related to the training of professionals comes in.

This kind of vision not only prepares employees to do their jobs better, it also makes them feel valued .

Appreciation leads to motivation, and this feeling, for some time now, has led the employee to think twice before jumping ship.

An institution that wants and encourages the intellectual and professional growth of its employees is at the forefront of what it means to be a modern and humane company.

2. It allows finding talent within the company itself

Talents are not inherent to individuals, they are developed through dedication and self-interest .

Therefore, nothing prevents the company from finding a talent for the HR sector within the finance department.

Or, even, that employee who can write sensitive texts to communicate with customers is stuck with the sales team.

Here, instead of looking for professionals who already understand a certain subject, this knowledge is being cultivated within the company .

This can still present more specific advantages for the business, since this professional is already inserted in the company’s niche.

He already has an in-depth knowledge of the solutions the organization provides and who its customers are.

These characteristics attributed to a professional are quite valuable and cannot be underestimated.

3. Increases productivity and service quality

The logic is simple: better-trained professionals tend to perform their tasks more efficiently and make fewer mistakes .

Work consistency and improved internal communication are also other benefits that are linked to increased productivity.

A well-planned training program empowers employees to take matters into their own hands and solve problems autonomously and creatively .

In this way, the company will deliver a higher quality service to its customers, also improving their level of satisfaction.

4. Decreases costs

If you want to sell the idea of ​​internal training to your manager, you can use an argument that goes straight to one of your main pain points: training helps to reduce costs!

This happens because of a number of reasons that end up adding up and forming a snowball.

Employees are more efficient in their work routines, being more productive and making less mistakes .

A well-developed program also tends to decrease employee turnover, retaining more talent over time .

5. Most competitive company

A company is only as good as its team , this is a maxim of the business world, there is nowhere to run.

By counting on an extremely qualified team, the business certainly tends to differentiate itself from its competitors and gain more market and greater competitiveness .

This is the dream scenario of any manager and can be achieved through internal training.

The benefits for the employee

6. Motivates the worker

Employee motivation is something that serves both the company and the individual. From the point of view of the latter, it is a great differential for your routine .

The workplace is often perceived as a discouraging environment, and this stigma is a much more common idea than seeing the company as a stimulating, fun and challenging place.

This is because the vast majority of people don’t really work in companies that care about developing this type of organizational climate.

On the other hand, when being inserted in a rewarding and stimulating environment, people tend to feel motivated, excited and even happy !

All this makes a big difference in the individual’s life and in his relationship with the organization that employs him .

7. Improvement of the work environment

Working in a more pleasant environment is certainly one of the main advantages that internal training offers to employees.

The environment becomes more dynamic, people tend to respect each other more, new ideas come up all the time, etc.

All of this results in a much more pleasant and positive organizational climate for everyone. Of course, this, in itself, already brings a multitude of other advantages!

8. Professional development

This is certainly one of the best benefits for employees, after all, who doesn’t want to evolve professionally, right?

At the end of the day, professional development is the main value an in-house training program will deliver to employees .

Despite this, they will not always have this view of the program. As we said earlier, this cannot be done unilaterally.

It is important to involve all stakeholders in the development of such an important program.

How to develop an internal training program

Now that you’re familiar with the theory, let’s also talk about how to get your hands dirty and get the people training project off the ground .

We need to point out already that this is not a simple task and the process will not be implemented efficiently overnight .

Keeping this in mind avoids frustrations at this stage and also helps to determine the best indicators to follow, through metrics, the success of the endeavor.

Enjoy and also delve deeper into the use of technologies within HR , we highly recommend our text on HR 3.0 for this purpose.

1-The phases of implementing a training program

To facilitate the idealization and implementation, we have divided the process into four steps, these are:

• phase 1 : identify training needs;
• phase 2 : prepare the training plan;
• phase 3 : carry out the training;
• Phase 4 : Evaluate the training results.

We’ll explore each of these phases in more depth below. Check out!

Phase 1: Identifying training needs

There are several methodologies to identify the problems of a company, and each business will have a more efficient model.

That’s because some corporations will have their problems focused on people, others on processes and some even need new equipment .

But regardless of the source of the problems, it is important to be able to identify them in order to understand what can be corrected through training.

Some methodologies that can help at this time are:

• observation of the employees’ routine;
• conducting performance evaluations;
• interview with employees;
• request for feedback;
• process evaluation;
• request for reports with performance indicators.

Problems that may be encountered on the production line :

• high rate of errors and reworks;
• low productivity due to inefficient processes;
• inefficient distribution of resources.

Problems that may occur with employees :

• low cooperation;
• negative organizational climate;
• difficulty in interpersonal relationships;
• communication problems;
• work accidents .

By identifying these problems, it is possible to draw up a plan to solve them . You will also notice that some of them are not directly related to staff training.

Phase 2: Creating an action plan

Now that you know what needs to be addressed by the internal training program, it’s time to think about the strategy.

For this, it is necessary to keep in mind some questions :

• who should participate in the program?
• What content should be addressed?
• What is the best period for training?
• Is the best approach really through internal training?
• Who will lead the training?

In addition, there are some issues that are quite relevant, such as: will the approach be through lectures, seminars involving the employees themselves or even with a rotation of functions?

It is important that the action plan is executed as soon as possible so that the company’s needs do not change in the meantime.

Training plans can have the following scopes :

• training of new employees;
• technical training to perform tasks;
• improvement for the entire company;
• development to prepare the employee for more complex roles.

Phase 3: running the training

This stage is when training takes shape and employees can learn new skills.

By answering all the questions we talked about in phase 1, you will be able to determine the best location and methodology to carry out the training.

Bearing in mind that there is no formula for carrying out the training and it is interesting that the employees themselves are consulted about their own didactic preferences.

Phase 4: evaluation of training results

If you have read (or are going to read) our text on HR 3.0 that we recommend above, you certainly already understand that there is no point in planning and executing actions without measuring your results.

Therefore, it is important, at the time of planning, to identify the possible results to be analyzed.

Some of these indicators can be:

• how employees reacted to the training program;
• what is the level of achievement of the course (learning assessment);
• what is the change in behavior that the training has brought about.

In addition to evaluating indicators related to employees, it is also possible to evaluate how this project improved the company’s metrics through the following questions:

• Was there a cost reduction?
• Has there been an increase in productivity?
• Did the employees show an improvement in performance?

The main challenges of internal training

Since it’s not all rosy, it’s also important to be aware of the main stumbling blocks you’ll encounter along the way as you get this project off the ground.

One of the first issues is to involve all employees who are interested .

Especially in companies where there is no culture of constant professional development, getting employees excited about the classroom perspective will not be simple.

Determining the best learning methodology for dozens of people will also be quite a challenge . So be prepared for several feedback sessions .

Carrying out data analysis in companies that have not yet made the switch to the digital world will be a gigantic bottleneck and may even make the last step unfeasible.

Using management systems and leaving the printed tables can be a great start to improve the company’s productivity and this bottleneck can even be identified in the first phase.