While it is often easy to put off investing in training with valid reasons such as it's not in the budget, can you really afford to continue to do that?  It can often be daunting to find not only the money in your budget but also the time to coordinate staff schedules.  In our electronic world, everyone is crazy busy and juggling multiple tasks but it's important to take a breath and truly consider all of the benefits of training.  In the end a successful training can result in a savings of both cost and time.

Here are just a few of the things a well-executed training session can do for your organization.

Increase Productivity

Are your staff making the most of their time?  There are always tips and tricks to learn that can help users become more efficient with the software. Seasoned staff may also not be aware of new features added to the software since their original training. As they learn more of the features and shortcuts available to them, they can be even more effective users often reducing the time previously needed to complete tasks.

Streamline Work Processes

Are you still relying too heavily on manual processes or a combination of manual and electronic? You may have purchased the tools to help you improve your work processes but without training to understand how to use those tools you may not be achieving your original goal.   Training can help you dive back into your software and work out better workflows that take full advantage of the electronic tools you already have in place.

Improve Employee Satisfaction

Are your employees happy with the software?  We all sometimes get bogged down in the day to day and it's easy to become frustrated by the things that are not working.  Trying to learn as you go or doing a little hunt in peck with your system can quickly turn your staff off from the solutions you have in place.  By training and helping your staff to understand how to successfully use the software, employees can become fully engaged with the process  and happier in their jobs.

Utilize Software More Fully

Are you using all the functionality of the software?  Maybe your employees are already happy with the software that you have and are using it to do their jobs but what if they are only using 60% of the software.  By not taking full advantage of everything you can do with the software you have, you are leaving money on the table.  Training can help you learn the software at a deeper level and let you take advantage of the full functionality.

Identify Areas of Additional Need

Are you looking for a new software solution for a specific problem you are trying to solve?  Start by training on your existing software first to get a full understanding of the features and what your existing solutions can and cannot do for your organization.  Once you understand the tools you already have in place, you can more clearly define any additional needs you may still have and target your search for solutions that solve those needs.

Reduce Costs

Are you trying to save money?  While a nifty ROI calculator can be helpful it may not show you the entire picture of what software training can save your organization in money for the long term.  There are some intangibles that also translate into cost savings such as increased employee retention and job satisfaction but that are hard to quantify.

Not all training sessions are built the same.  To really get the full benefit of training, you need to be sure that the agenda covers your needs and the person presenting the training is qualified and engaging.  Let Soft Trac help you with your training › needs. 

Our consultants have extensive nonprofit backgrounds and are certified on the products on which they train.  Soft Trac can customize the training session to be sure it meets your organization's needs.

Soft Trac is a woman-owned business and accomplished team of nonprofit software consultants.  We believe in making nonprofits "do good" better.