If you were given the choice between two different plant operators—one was qualified, the other not—which one would you choose?

But, what if there was no “up-front” cost for the untrained construction operator? You still wouldn’t do it?

Yet, many business owners do not recognise the importance of employee training.

Most business managers wouldn’t hire unqualified employees. But so many of them do employ under-qualified workers. Sometimes employees become under-qualified over time – due to changing technology or changes in how we do things, old to new.

We all know construction training does come at a cost and the most common excuses not to upskill are:

• “We are too busy to learn something new right now.”
• “We just don’t have the money to pay for training.”

Yes, training employees costs time, money, and materials. Not only will there be missed time, but there will also be additional costs. We’ve all heard the horror stories of poor construction training which puts the employer off on giving another training organisation a fair go. Failed training comes at a high cost, and businesses often don’t want to take that risk.

However, not training your employees also comes at a cost.  Check out these 6 reasons you might want to reconsider:

1. Untrained Employees = Unhappy Employees

Employees who feel inadequate, underachieving, or unsupported are unhappy. They aren’t satisfied in their work, which will cause them to underperform, make mistakes, and not care about their work product. That costs the business in lost time and money.

2. Untrained Workers Have a Low Production Value

The quality of their work is lower and of less value. The quality in performance is lower than it could (or should) be.

3. Untrained Workers Are Inefficient

More time (and therefore money) and effort is spent when employees aren’t fully or properly trained to perform their tasks or to fulfil their responsibilities.

It takes them longer to do the work.

4. Lost Time and Money Due to Mistakes

When an untrained worker makes a mistake, the time and materials used are lost. The work then has to be done again. Or worse, the inadequate product was delivered to the client.

5. An Increase in Miscellaneous Expenses

These are more difficult to track or attribute to untrained workers, but they are there. It takes more time to fix the mistake, more materials cost in paper and ink, and more time rechecking the work. If it were done correctly the first time, these costs wouldn’t be there.

6. Insufficient Staff Training Means Lost Customers

Untrained employees can cause many of the mistakes listed above, and those mistakes and inefficiencies can cause your business to lose customers. That is the worst possible scenario, but it can happen.

What would you do as an employer if there was an accident on site due to lack of training and someone died or was seriously injured? Something that can be is so easily avoided.

Training programs and costs have an easily measured up-front cost of time and money. Those line items are difficult to handle on a tight budget.

However, added costs of poorly trained staff shows the importance of training employees. These costs do not come in the form of line items, so they are often ignored or unseen.

Having a trained workforce means your workers are learning new skills that can improve production, cut time spent in creation of your product (or service), reduce production costs, reduce mistakes, build confidence in your workforce, and create a better working environment.

An investment in your employees’ skill sets is an investment in your company. When everyone gets better, everyone gets better.