Commercial skills training can cover a wide range of qualities, from financial to interpersonal skills, and by-and-large will vary from role to role, and by each organisation.
Do you want to drive change, and ultimately drive value in your business? Then there are two questions you must ask yourself as a leader;
- Does every member of my organisation understand their role in the business?
- Is every member of the workforce equipped with the commercial skills they need to be effective, and empowered, in their role?
We all want our team members to think and act more commercially, and these are just a few reasons why you might want to consider planning a programme of commercial skills training for your company:
To encourage and sustain positive behaviour you have seen
You may have seen an employee demonstrate strong commercial acumen by offering analysis on a trading pattern, or perhaps they have identified ways to minimise costs in a particular area to improve profit margins, without being asked? You can look to encourage this more commercial behaviour across the entire workforce, to help drive positive change across the entire business.
To ensure your workforce feels empowered
People that understand their role within the business, and can see how they can affect change and influence the ‘bottom line’ feel empowered and motivated.
Empowered people take ownership of their role and are more engaged at work, ultimately helping to move the organisation forward as a participant, not just as a passenger.
To drive a change of approach
If you are looking to change the focus of your business, and get your teams to change their approach within it - commercial training can contribute to this process. With focused training, new ways of working can be instilled across an entire workforce and be used transformatively.
To improve the use of reporting
How many employees truly understand the reporting you currently use in meetings, for weekly conference calls, daily team briefs or management meetings? If your workforce doesn’t truly grasp the figures, or Key Performance Indicators being discussed they will lack the confidence and insights to help drive performance.
Experiential training, fully immersed in your commercial context and management information will support your people with skills, knowledge and insights to better understand where they can add value and achieve organisational goals.
To increase employee well-being
Many employers do not consider that employee wellbeing is an important part of leadership, however, studies have shown that employees that feel valued, empowered, and work in a supportive atmosphere tend to be more productive.
The right commercial skills training can be used to improve employee wellbeing by helping people understand where they fit in the bigger picture and how their day-to-day duties actually make a difference to the business’ performance. Such an approach can help reduce absenteeism and improve productivity.