How to Increase Your Company’s Skillset without Hiring More Employees

31/07/2015

By Fast Lane

Increasing the services your team can provide for your customers can result in increased lead generation, sales and customer satisfaction. The potential to offer full turnkey services to customers could be an important factor in influencing their decision where to take their custom – with your all-in-one service trumping competitors.

The most obvious way to increase the office skillset is to add new faces to the team – but in-demand skilled workers can come at a huge cost. Able to demand sizeable wages, skilled workers could be a considerable drain on resources. This may make it preferable to seek alternative solutions when looking to increase the office’s skillset.

Freelancers

Many freelancers offer white label services, allowing you to employ their services on a short-term basis and sell them under your brand. This can be more cost-effective than employing a full-time member of staff – especially if the desired skill is quite specialist and only required intermittently.

People Per Hour is often a useful place to start your search for a freelancer – offering a large database of skilled individuals with different specialities and credentials. From web-coding to graphic design, a huge range of skills are represented, offered at prices to suit a selection of different budgets.

Pros:
In theory, utilising the skills of freelancers could lead to an almost unlimited range of skills offered by your company.
Freelancers can add flexibility to your offerings – ensuring you’re not paying for skills when you don’t require them.

Cons:
Many freelancers can command a higher price pro rata than full-time contracted staff.
If you are contacted for repeat work – the original freelancer may no longer be available to complete the work to the same standard.
It may be difficult to control the quality level of the freelancer’s output – potentially performing at a level below your company’s expected standard.

Internal Training

By encouraging your team to share their skills with the rest of the workforce can help increase the overall skillset of the office. If five members of the team are capable of jumping onto a specific task rather than just one – it may be possible to take on an increased volume of work.

By structuring skill-sharing seminars and workshops for your team – practical and practicable skills within the workforce can be increased significantly. The team may also find it easier and less daunting to learn from a colleague rather than a stranger.

However – this method of training will not allow you to increase your team’s repertoire of skills – just the number of practitioners of each skill.

Pros:
The team will appreciate the opportunity for training and skill advancement.
Keeping the training in-house can be incredibly cost-effective.

Cons:
Training in-house means you are restricted to existing skills.
Asking team members to conduct training sessions will move them away from their primary responsibilities.
Skilled members of the team may not necessarily be great orators or teachers.

External Training

Seeking external training can help members of your team acquire the most desirable and beneficial skills for your office. With almost limitless training courses across all industries and professions, it is possible to increase the value and abilities of your current team without introducing new face to the organisation.

As well as increasing the potential of the team and the services your company can provide, training can also lead to increased happiness amongst the workforce.

A 2013 study by Blessing White determined that one of the four most important factors for employee satisfaction and happiness was the ability to progress and increase their skills. This has led to a significant increase in funds spent on training by businesses in recent years as they look to nurture a workforce which is both profitable and satisfied.

We are currently seeing a trend towards a desire in employers and their employees to have a combination of complementary skills to offer a better-rounded service. Highly trained and skilled individuals have the ability to supersede a larger, more-costly team without compromising output or performance.

Pros:
Professional trainers can help maximise understanding of a skill.
Training for almost any skill is readily available.
Professional training courses may be more up-to-date than internal trainers.

Cons:
External training can be more costly than internal training.