A well-trained employee is educated enough to be able to handle delegation, knowledgeable enough to get the tasks done, and is someone you can count on. They want to be trained, too - they feel more effective at work, and feel like they are growing in their career. You need to train your employees, but good training costs your business money.
- It’s good for morale
- More knowledge means more can be delegated
- Better talent helps to grow the company
- Fewer mistakes means more profit
- Employees don’t want a dead end job – they want growth opportunity
To do this, you typically have to pay your people to attend a course and pay for the trainer. This can get expensive, so some states have grant money to help. In the Northeast US, MA and NJ are the most active in this area.
Massachusetts employers, have you noticed that you pay higher taxes at the beginning of the year than at the end of the year? In part, this is because you’re being taxed to generate money for these grants. The MA Workforce Training Grants are funded by Payroll taxes. This payment (.056% of the first $15k for 2017) is in addition to the Unemployment Insurance contribution payment, and is deposited in the Workforce Training Fund “which is used to award grants to companies to provide workforce training and education programs for incumbent workers.”
This is similar to the energy saving programs from the utilities (example: MassSave). If you examine your bill, you’ll see that you pay a “tax” on each bill to fund the energy programs. It’s your money, and you should take advantage of it to make your facility more energy efficient.
The same is true for the workforce grants. It’s your money, and you’ve been paying it for years. If your salaries are high enough and you want continuous training, you can get a General Grant that could pay 90% of the cost of the training (up to $250k). If your needs and wants are smaller, then you can apply for the Express Grant of up to $30k. For the latter, you pay for the training first and then get up to 50% reimbursed. Half off training that can bring the benefits stated at the top of this article is a fantastic deal. But then again, it is your money!
The great benefit is you get a qualified expert like me who can train all employees, just the executives, or some other subset on specific topics. I have 6 programs so far that are approved by the state of MA, and I’ll be adding more. The current programs are:
- Organizational Leadership
- Hiring A-players for Company Growth
- Performance Management: Getting Their Best
- Online Marketing Workshop
- Improve your Emotional Intelligence
- Leadership Institute
The programs are listed as 4 hour courses per week for multiple weeks, but these can be delivered all at once, or in two hour sessions. The scope can also be expanded or reduced.
Visit http://www.mpoweradvisors.com/smb-grants/ for more info and links to apply.