Although some type of training for employees is essential for almost any business, employers must consider the potential drawbacks or disadvantages that training employees can have on the company, existing staff and bottom line. Companies can use a variety of ways to train employees, such as on-the-job training or classroom training, but all of them present a few problems for employers. Before you choose a training method, explore the disadvantages of training in human resource management as well as the advantages.

Tip

Besides the cost of providing training for your employees, consider that you might be helping your competition by giving them more valuable skills on their resumes.

Cost Can be Prohibitive

One of the biggest potential disadvantages of training employees is the cost of the process. If you handle the training internally, it costs money because you have to pay one of your employees for training instead of doing productive work. If you use an outside trainer, you have to pay him for his time. You could send your employees to a seminar or training conference in another location, which also can represent a substantial cost for the company.

Quality Depends on the Trainer's Qualifications

If an employee is very talented at her job, you might think that she would make a good trainer for new employees. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Being able to train employees is a special skill and not everyone has this ability. When it comes to using an employee to train other employees, you might move someone out of her comfort zone and she may be unable to train the new employees as you need them to be trained. On the other hand, if she's not just a talented worker, but also enthusiastic about the company and a great communicator, she may pass the interview stage. For high-level positions, you're better off hiring a corporate trainer with a bachelor or graduate degree.

Takes Time From Daily Operations

Another potential problem with training employees is that you may not have enough time to do so adequately. Many companies only devote a small amount of time to training new employees, and it could result in the employees not knowing everything they need to know to be successful. The trainer may have to rush through the important parts of the job and skip over some of the other tasks that also need to be understood by the employee.

Helping Your Competition

You have to train completely inexperienced employees in order for them to do their jobs effectively, but there can be too much of a good thing if you're in a competitive field. By giving an employee intensive training, you may be doing a lot of work that will benefit one of your competitors. It's important to judge the loyalty of your staff before deciding to invest in advanced training programs. Otherwise, they may decide to look for a better offer elsewhere once they've got more valuable skills on their resume.

Control of the Training

When you delegate the training of new employees to a particular employee or trainer, you have to be very careful with regard to what the new employees are learning. If the trainer does not do the job as you want it to be done, your new employees might end up picking up some bad habits along the way. This could make your entire business perform at a level that is less than acceptable from your point of view, but the employees would not know it. Using traditional training methods, such as manuals or videos may not be effective if they're dated, uninteresting or not engaging. Consider blending updated, online interactive training models with in-person training to achieve better results, save time and cut costs.