Employee training can effectively add years of experience to someone’s skill set, giving both individuals and companies the growth they desire.
The best corporate training programs benefit both team members and business owners alike.
As Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and peerlessly shrewd business leader, once said,
“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
Making the most of internal talent is a smart business strategy, saving oodles on recruiting costs and turnover shrink. Companies end up with employees who want to stay at their jobs and who are also growing better at their jobs. It’s truly a win-win scenario.
Benefits of Corporate Training Programs
In addition to generally boosting company-wide competencies in ways that fuel progress toward business goals, corporate training programs can also provide a ton of company-wide benefits.
These programs can…
- Target any performance metrics you want to hit, whether you’re looking to address challenges or meet stretch objectives.
- Improve retention, saving companies tons of money that might be wasted on turnover. (After all, who wants to leave a company offering so many professional development opportunities? Millennials for one, favor jobs that help them develop new skills.)
- Help employees, just by participating in the program, develop communication, and collaboration skills, and other soft skills that bring halo benefits to the entire company.
- Boost your bottom line and profits with higher-performing sales teams and enhanced efficiencies. (One case study found that a training program increased a restaurant’s business by 4%.)
- Help companies fill executive teams with internal talent trained to excel in specific roles.
- Motivate employees by cultivating their self-efficacy, which in turn can give them the confidence to perform better.
Are you ready to see how a structured corporate training program can benefit your goals?
You’re in luck. We’ve partnered with Outback Team Building, a leading provider of effective and focused employee training, and interviewed their Head Facilitator Lyndon Friesen at Outback Team Building to give you first-hand insight about 21 corporate training skills you can cultivate at your company.
Find out for yourself why past training participants call Outback’s programs informative and inspiring, relevant and thoughtfully put together, the best training session they’ve ever been a part of, and precisely the dialogue they wanted to have to take their team’s performance to a new level.
1 Team Communication Training
Team communication training helps employees develop a complete spectrum of strengths to make them better collaborators and teammates. A strong communication skill set lays a foundation for overall success. It determines the level of buy-in you’ll earn on ideas. It helps you deliver presentations that resonate. It helps you send emails that don’t result in an avalanche of awkward miscommunication.
Communication that delivers clarity and alignment of expectations and team objectives is the hinge that swings the large door of positive business results.
Effective communication is crucial for productive debate or dialogue, collaboration, and unity towards team goals. Team commitment has an opportunity to come to life when effective communication has occurred. Our need in business to go faster has led to many of us making incorrect assumptions of others words and poor interpretation of their intent which is a great recipe for missed business outcomes.
-Lyndon Friesen, Head Facilitator at Outback
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This interactive training empowers employees to practice seamless communication and all the advantages that come with it. They’ll be able to master conflict resolution, send clear emails and messages, and use both verbal and non-verbal techniques to improve how others receive them as well as their ideas.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
This training strengthens team building throughout an organization. With master communicators leading projects, companies will see marked benefits in productivity, problem-solving, and even engagement. Employers won’t need to follow up or check in on projects as often because they know their teams are working effectively together.
2 Effective Habits for Working Remotely
Working remotely and doing so effectively is a skill in itself. Training in this area covers the tactical and technical aspects of being productive from a distance, and it also covers emotional and wellness strategies employees can leverage to avoid burnout, maintain focus, and keep their work-life balance when work happens in the middle of everything.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Skills training in remote work gives employees what they need to feel effective and connected while working far from friends and colleagues. It helps employees overcome the distractions, frustrations, and anxieties that could otherwise bar them from doing their best work.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
When employees undergo this kind of training, companies will feel it in the form of skyrocketing remote productivity and teamwork with the resilience to withstand the distance
3 Collaborative Team Dynamic Training
They say the only constant in life is changing and this adage applies to team dynamics as well as it applies to anything else. Training courses on team dynamics give groups the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the complexities of team interactions, with all their nuances, fluctuations, and undulations. This training makes accessible those seemingly abstract factors that enable some teams to communicate, collaborate, and work better together.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This training enables employees to feel the joy of not just working with, but also truly being a part of a team. As they learn how to adjust their communication styles and build trust, they’ll finally understand why some people say that teamwork makes the…you know the rest.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Interventions to try to “fix” dysfunctional teams are tedious, expensive, and ineffective. With this training, companies simply make an initial investment and then sit back as teams work well together and even have the wherewithal to navigate speed bumps that do come up.
4 DiSC Assessment Training & Discovering Your Workstyle
This learning experience works a bit like an “applied psychology 101” class. It gives students insight into their DiSC (dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness) results and demonstrates all the ways their unique work styles might affect their interactions and relationships. They might even be able to guess their coworkers’ styles, gaining the ability to anticipate needs like mind readers.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Students learn simple truths about themselves, things that might be surprising or even enlightening. Equipped with this newfound insight, employees can better plan their work and communication strategies to set themselves up for success.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Classroom training in DiSC profiles doesn’t just give each assessed individual insight; it also gives companies insight into the range of profiles represented in different teams. This will help leaders better anticipate challenges and potentially gain a deeper appreciation of each employee’s unique abilities and development opportunities.
5 Impactful Presentation Skills
Upskill the technique, the art, of the effective presentation. Practicing vocal modulation like a presidential candidate, working the stage like a TEDtalker, making warm eye contact like a therapist—all these core presentation skills and more will be at employees’ fingertips with the proper training.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees gain more than presentation skills during this training; they gain the confidence to get up on stage and dazzle a crowd. Instead of shying away from presentation opportunities, they’ll embrace them.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
This training gives companies peace of mind that employees will represent them on all occasions with grace, charm, and the kind of impact that attracts collaborators, clients, and funders.
6 Coaching Fundamentals
Whether we were little leaguers or college athletes, most of us remember having that coach who just did everything right. They knew how to help you learn new techniques and also overcome the mental blocks holding you back. This training helps anyone become the kind of coach, the kind of leader, their team will always remember.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
When leaders have this training, employees get the kind of developmental attention that’s corrective without being critical. Employees get the feedback they need to truly succeed.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
From this training, businesses gain an entire fleet of leaders who understand their leadership styles and also know how to deploy those styles to give the kind of positive and negative feedback that inspires and enables employees to succeed.
7 Conflict Resolution
Awkward workplace conflicts can sometimes feel insurmountable, slashing productivity for days if not weeks, especially if the parties in conflict usually collaborate closely. While some people are born with the ability to bring people together, others can gain this ability, the ability of graceful conflict resolution, with expertly planned training.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This training helps fill employees’ interpersonal skills gap, showing them how to take responsibility for their behaviors, recognize brewing conflicts, and resolve trouble before it becomes debilitating.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Lost productivity and spiking turnover no longer have to be the stuff of employers’ nightmares. This training allows them to rest assured that employees can resolve their differences without escalating to major blow-ups or requiring mediation.
8 Confident Decision Making
Don’t wait until a major decision is breathing down your neck to learn the methodology you need to make the right choice, and take the right course of action. Training in decision-making relies on practice and in-depth mental modeling that simulates the process of making decisions and demonstrates the reliable steps and thought processes necessary to confidently make the right call.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
In real-time decision-making, the only feedback most people receive comes along with the results of said decisions. But what if that feedback is negative and the decision was important? Through this training, employees get to prepare in a safe environment for the big game, those decisions that could impact forever their companies and their careers. They’ll pinpoint exactly what areas to focus on the next time a real-life decision comes along.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Effective leadership demands trust and delegation. When employees have the skills they need to systematically make logical, informed decisions, companies can confidently delegate more decisions and know that they don’t even have to be involved. Their trusted collaborators have this on lock.
9 Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence or EQ has been touted for years as instrumental to an individual’s interpersonal success. Some deep dives have even isolated EQ as a critical driver of career performance, accounting for over half of the factors that influence a person’s job success. Given the right training, anyone can move their EQ score from average to “genius” levels.
IQ states, you are smart in a specific topic, therefore I want to listen to you.
EQ (Emotional Intelligence), says you understand me, therefore I want to follow you.
Effective team dynamics are often flattered with positive KPI’s in relation to retention and engagement, collaboration, trust, and an overall positive culture. Behind all this are leaders who lead with EQ not power or ego. EQ is the ability to be aware of how your words, actions and behaviors impact the people around you.
-Lyndon Friesen, Head Facilitator at Outback
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This training gives employees the priceless gift of self-awareness. They’ll understand in what ways they need to improve their empathy and even regulate their behaviors. They’ll enjoy closer, more meaningful, collaborations, and relationships as they make positive modifications to their daily interactions.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Some data suggest that emotionally intelligent people perform better at work. By training employees to be more emotionally intelligent, companies benefit in turn with optimal performance across all their teams and departments.
10 Situational Leadership Styles
There’s no one-size-fits-all leadership style. There’s also no standard workplace scenario that requires the same leadership strategies and tactics every single time. Leaders, whether they’re directors, supporters, coaches, or delegators, must not just have the skills to lead, but also the skills to adapt their techniques to meet the needs of the situation at hand. This training helps them model different situations and modulate their management techniques appropriately.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This training gives employees empathetic and aware leaders that know how to detect and meet their needs in a variety of contexts. Employees get bosses who can help with absolutely anything.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Businesses get leaders who know how to coach, help or direct their team members through challenges or toward goals. Employers get teams that are now flourishing under standout leadership.
11 Authentic Leadership
Writing on Linkedin, author, and businessman Bill George defines authentic leaders as “people of the highest integrity, committed to building enduring organizations … who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values who have the courage to build their companies to meet the needs of all their stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society.”
Training in this area helps talented leaders dig deep and find their deep sense of authenticity and purpose.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Authentic leaders are inspirational leaders. When leaders build their authenticity in this training, the people they lead get the kind of fearless leaders they know they can count on to support them in their pursuit of goals both big and small.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
This training leaves the business with authentic leaders that don’t just inspire employees to do their best today, but also make them stick around in the long run, strengthening the company as they build new skills and maybe even become authentic leaders themselves.
12 Practical Time Management
From project management to graphic design, every job and responsibility in any organization relies first and foremost on practical time management. Even the most talented and well-organized employees can flounder if they lose track of time and never seem to have enough to get things done.
Perfect for everyone from new hires to senior leadership, time management training has valuable takeaways for all roles and all levels.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees will feel like they have more time. Given the practical tools they need to prioritize tasks and enhance their work rhythms, employees will feel proud of all they can accomplish.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Businesses get employees who know how to elevate their most important tasks. All the most mission-critical work gets done and that beautiful cost-saving sense of efficiency will soar.
13 The Power Of Negotiation
It’s no coincidence that novice negotiators tend to leave the table with the short end of the stick. Complicated and often emotional, the art of negotiation requires practice. Training in this area helps employees build negotiation skills in the safe, low-stakes environment of a classroom.
There are numerous great negotiation models that litter the internet today.
However the principles of great negotiation always includes following: coming from a place of meaning, knowing what your organization needs and why, expanding the ‘pie’, and understanding the position of the person opposite of you.
-Lyndon Friesen, Head Facilitator at Outback
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
During this training, employees gain skills that used to seem as out of reach as superpowers. They’ll learn to influence other people and also how to stop emotions from coloring, and sometimes ruining their negotiations.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Businesses know they can call on anyone to best represent the company’s interest when partnerships, deals, and other collaborations call for seasoned negotiators.
14 Performance Management Fundamentals
This management training makes accessible the core components of effective management, which according to Gallup, include “hiring and promoting employees into roles that fit their talents, creating a supportive work environment, and freeing teams to develop their own workflows.”
This training helps busy managers, including office managers, pull themselves away from day-to-day needs, and consider the big picture strategies they can deploy to help their teams succeed.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
This training leaves employees with managers who can also be mentors and allies who notice their strengths and help them shine.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Companies enjoy the benefits of a solid enterprise-wide management style. Managers nurture relationships, lead employees to optimal performance, and also build the kinds of relationships that fuel retention rates.
15 Active Employee Engagement
To be successful, employee engagement must be constantly nurtured, and by people who know what they’re doing, who understand the indicators, and also the drivers of engagement. Training in this area gives leaders the ability to launch and also constantly offer effective employee engagement.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees benefit from the fruits of this training by deepening involvement with their work, their co-workers, and their goals.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Employers get to capture all the benefits that come along with employee engagement, including increased profits and lower absenteeism.
16 Effective Meetings
We’ve all been to those meetings that drag on or fall flat or seem to have absolutely no point. This training can completely restructure the meeting came across your company, leading to more productive interactions, less wasted time, and decreased frustration.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees get to spend less time sitting in meetings and the time they do spend will be effective, purposeful, and safe from those notorious meeting hijackers who can derail the intentions of an entire group.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Businesses benefit from the beautiful fact that employees waste less time in unnecessary meetings and enjoy more fruitful and less frustrating collaborations.
17 Productive Feedback & Performance Reviews
These kinds of development programs demystify the process of giving and receiving performance reviews and feedback. This training makes it easier for employees of all levels to navigate the often emotionally fraught world of performance reviews. Everyone will get better at giving and receiving feedback and performance will flourish as a result.
Feedback that is viewed as a ‘gift’ is our goal. If it’s viewed as a gift, which it is, your feedback will produce the desired change.
Two crucial pieces need to come together for this to be viewed as a gift (1) trust in your intent, competence, and character and (2) explicitly communicated expectations and objectives that are owned by the individual. This trust and alignment of expectations and objectives lends itself to quantum leap growth in the individual as they embrace and implement the feedback given to them.
-Lyndon Friesen, Head Facilitator at Outback
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees benefit from a standard set of techniques with which they receive feedback and reviews. This standardization makes it easier for them to absorb the feedback and adjust when needed.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
By giving employees compliance training in feedback and review expectations, companies end up with performance reviews and feedback mechanisms that run smoothly, efficiently, and painlessly.
18 Accelerated Selling
This training digs into every aspect of the sales continuum, from pitch tactics to customer pain points to the basic structures and strategies underlying it all. By taking the time to reflect on these sales drivers, trainees can go back to work with renewed focus and renewed energy.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees get the tools they need to reflect on and improve their sales methodologies, ultimately making more sales and more commissions.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
A well-trained sales force can bring more profits and more clients to the business. When the sales team is equipped with the best tactics and properly incentivized, the company benefits from the results.
19 Building Strategic Teams With StrengthsFinder
This training provides a door-opening, eye-opening experience. When employees confront their true strengths, magic happens. They develop new levels of confidence. They explore new interests. They take on new goals they might not have dared explore the day before.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees get priceless insights into their strengths, strengths that might not be readily apparent. This comes along with newfound confidence, energy, and motivation.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
These training sessions infuse companies with all the amazing work that follows employees’ self-realization of their strengths and talents. Increased motivation and vigor drive employees to work harder and take on new projects for the benefit of all.
20 Self-Discovery With Myers-Briggs
From human resource onboarding for new employees to advanced levels of job training, all employee development opportunities can be enhanced when employees have awareness and understanding of their Myers-Briggs type. Equipped with the knowledge of what drives their preferences and behaviors, employees find new clarity in their decisions and in how they work.
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees gain invaluable insight into their minds and personalities. They learn how certain elements of their personalities affect their professional interactions and also how to leverage their strengths and preferences to succeed.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
This exercise also gives businesses insight into the work situations and activities that motivate employees. Companies can subtly adjust environments and assignments so they can inspire the best performance from employees.
21 Creating Mission, Vision, and Values
The ultimate in leadership development, this visionary style of training gets participants thinking in mission-oriented ways. Employees at all levels get to wear the leadership hat, flexing the thinking muscles and leadership skills that usually determine the ultimate strategic direction of a company.
Vision, mission and values creation or refinement rarely feels like a great use of 2-5 days of time. ‘We don’t have the time’ is likely the single largest excuse we give to others in our lives. We have become programmed that the only valuable work is urgent work and then we wonder why we didn’t arrive at our desired destination.
The debate, discussion, and conflict not only creates clarity of our vision, mission and values but tremendous ownership. This ownership leads a leadership team down the path of then creating a successful strategic plan which is cascaded throughout the organization with passion and belief.
-Lyndon Friesen, Head Facilitator at Outback
Why employees benefit from this corporate training:
Employees get to flex big-picture strategic skills they never get to use in the day-to-day.
How does the business benefit from this type of corporate training:
Companies get invaluable input and potentially priceless ideas that could inform or transform the mission and direction of company strategy in surprising and positive ways.
