Companies may recognize the importance of training their staff but often find themselves cash strapped to invest in it. Many companies put their elaborate training programs on hold after the recent global economic crisis. Although this may save the immediate buck, it can prove costlier in the long run due to poor productive growth of employees. High end training is almost always difficult for small businesses to pull off and so they often ignore training of employees all together. Just because you can’t commit a massive amount s training budget doesn’t mean you have to forego training! Here is a look at some methods you can try to train your employees for barely any cost:

1. Form a training ‘Union’ of sorts with other small business owners. Use each others expert staff to share knowledge and skills. Each company will have employees with unique skills who can act as trainers for others.

2. When purchasing equipment of software, include product training as part of the contract. Get the manufacturer to send a representative to your office premises and train the employees on how to use the equipment of software. This will cut the cost you would incur in training the employees while your staff will get trained first hand by the manufacturer’s experts.

3. Form in-house training groups consisting of employees who have been identified as having good leadership and mentoring skills. Encourage them to set up weekly training classes for colleagues. Give them an incentive in the form of performance bonuses. This way, your employees will get trained for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional trainer.

4. Try out one of the many online training courses available. Several sites provide free training material that can be utilized by your in-house training groups.

5. Send a single employee to a professional training camp and have the employee pass on the knowledge and skills to colleagues.