Why MSPs Need to Invest in Training and Upskilling

Businesses understand the importance of learning and development in the workspace. However, training often takes a backseat when businesses have to deal with other priorities. Ignoring training and development altogether can have drastic consequences on a company’s performance, business growth, financial turnover, workforce retention and more. By focusing on training and upskilling, MSPs can give themselves a competitive edge and future-proof their business.

In this blog, we’ll explore the significance of investing in training and upskilling in an MSP. We’ll also focus on the measures you can incorporate to ensure a well-trained workforce.

Consequences of Poor Training and Development

Even before the pandemic, many MSPs overlooked training and upskilling in their organizations. However, this has proven to be even more challenging in light of today’s remote and hybrid work environments. Despite these challenges, it certainly isn’t a good idea for any MSP to ignore workplace training. Let’s take a look at some of the consequences of not investing in proper workplace training.

Lack of Knowledge

In the world of technology, updates takes place on a rapid scale. If your employees are not up to date with the latest skills, it will reflect in the quality of their work. When the pandemic forced organizations and employees around the world to adopt full-scale remote work with barely a warning, technicians in MSPs had to deal with everything from learning new tools to incorporating new workflows almost overnight. Periodic training on new tools and technologies could have prepared them for this sudden transition.

Work Stress and Dissatisfaction

Poor training can also affect the mental health of knowledge workers in many ways. When technicians are asked to handle tasks they aren’t adequately trained for, it results in poor performance and adds to their work stress. Your technicians may also feel undervalued and dissatisfied with their job roles as a result.

High Employee Turnover

Dissatisfied workers are unlikely to stay in the same organization for a long time. Moreover, employees always like to learn new skills and move up the ladder in their job roles. If they feel “stuck” in their job role without any improvement, they are likely to look for a job that caters to their needs. With good technicians hard to come by in today’s competitive environment, you certainly don’t want to lose valuable employees due to a lack of training and development.

Low Efficiency and Productivity

If your employees aren’t satisfied at work, it will inevitably reflect in their performance. Dissatisfied workers tend to perform only the bare minimum required of them. They don’t take any initiatives by themselves or come up with effective and efficient solutions. If your MSP is suffering from low efficiency and productivity, it is time to take stock of the training and development you provide.

How to Make the Most of Your Training

Comprehensive training and development can benefit your MSP in many ways. To ensure proper training and development in your MSP, you can incorporate the following strategies:

• Identify Skill Gaps: Assess the current skill level of your technicians and identify new areas suitable for their development. You may consider in-demand skills like cybersecurity, compliance, cloud computing, etc., to upskill your workers.
• Involve Stakeholders: Proper training is a coordinated effort that requires active participation from various departments like HR, marketing, design, etc. Make sure you involve all the required stakeholders before you start.
• Develop Training Modules: Your training modules should align with the skill gaps you just identified. Even if you cannot provide the training on your own, you can bring in experts from outside or enroll your employees in third-party certification courses.
• Provide Training and Measure Growth: After planning the training program, you can roll it out in a way that it doesn’t affect your employees’ work. Gather regular feedback to monitor their progress and to make adjustments to the course.
• Encourage Knowledge Sharing: Promote knowledge sharing as a culture in your organization. Use a centralized documentation platform like IT Glue to promote collaboration and share all necessary training materials, SOPs, checklists, etc., with other team members.

Summary

Learning and development should not be one-time exercise in any business that values innovation. Make sure it is a continuous process by providing the right environment for your employees to grow. With regular training, you can boost the skills of your employees and continue to deliver high-quality work to your clients.

Promoting Learning and Development With IT Glue

IT Glue is a leading cloud-based documentation platform that can work wonders for your training process. You can use it to automate the documentation process and promote team collaboration by sharing all relevant training material.

Moreover, IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine, all of which are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation.

To know more about how IT Glue can help with your workforce training, request a demo.

Request Your Demo Here!

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