Microsoft Excel remains one of the leading spreadsheet software options available with businesses of all kinds around the world using it. While many of the features are relatively easy to use, to get the most from Excel, it is often best to get training. But why would you need to have training in Excel for your business and what benefit does it offer employees too?
Excel benefits for the employee
For the employee, there are both benefits within their current role and ongoing benefits that help them during the rest of their career. Once the training is done, often little extra training is needed to ensure you remain on top of the latest features and components of the software.
Improve your skills
The most obvious benefit for the employee is that they improve their skills, not just in the use of Excel. Training to use the more advanced features of the program also teach a range of additional skills including:
- How to clean up and prepare data to be analysed
- How to create complex equations to pose and answer questions
- Accurate assessment of information
- Help to solve business problems with data and facts
- Spot bugs in a workflow
- Create and implement tracking systems for various business areas
Become more efficient
Learning to harness the full power of advanced Excel means the employee can be more efficient as less time is spent figuring out what or how to do something. Instead, they have the knowledge to use the system completely and can act, rather than trying to decide on the processes or formulas needed to achieve their task.
Make tasks easier
One of the biggest frustrations in work can be when you are asked to do something and have no idea how to do it. A simple task of creating a spreadsheet showing data for your manager can become a much longer job. But by having the right training on all features of the software, then it is much easier to achieve this and therefore tasks are less frustrating. Also, such tasks will be done in a more accurate way when staff are comprehensively trained.
Increase employee value
Any time you offer training to your employees, this increases their value and Microsoft Excel is a big plus for them. This is a skill that can be transferred to a wide range of businesses and roles that means they are better placed to get a promotion or to branch into a new area than they would be without this.
Improve staff loyalty
Staff turnover is a big issue for many businesses and is often due to staff feeling undervalued or that there are no opportunities to improve. By offering Excel training, this helps retain staff by ensuring they realise they are valued – because you are investing in them. You can also help them plan for their future and see how the training can fit into a future career path.
Excel benefits for the employer
There’s no doubting the benefits for employees in having Excel training but employers can also see a number of benefits that make it worth adding to the training schedule for staff.
Make the most of your staff
Every member of staff is an asset to your company but by offering them training on Excel, you are making the most of that asset by providing them with the ability to do more in their role. Because Excel is used in so many departments and in so many ways, you also allow them to enhance their own abilities and therefore offer greater opportunities in the future.
Increase employee efficiency
We have mentioned this as an employee benefit and obviously, it is also a benefit for the business owner – as any step to improve efficiency is. With Microsoft Excel training, you can have staff that are able to quickly and effortlessly complete tasks using the software without spending considerable time figuring out what is needed or how to do something.
You can also view this as increased by the number of employees that go through the training – if each saves 10 minutes a day and you have 10 employees trained on Excel, this can amount to a good saving each month.
Reduce workload on IT staff
If you have dedicated IT staff in the business or even go-to people for tech, one of their biggest issues will be constantly being bogged down with tasks like showing people how to use the software. By giving staff training in Microsoft Excel, this is one thing that staff aren’t going to be asking the IT department and can often problem-solve more complex issues themselves.
Quick and effective training
Training is time taken away from normal duties so there’s always an assessment of who needs this training due to the necessary time investment. Quality Excel training isn’t a long or complicated process, and this means it is a good investment in terms of the benefits and expanded skill set without leaving staff with a huge backlog of work.
Retain the best staff
Employees today want to feel valued and this increases their loyalty to the company. By offering them training with so many benefits to them as well as to the company, you have a better chance of keeping the best staff. Not only that but you can look to the future with them, plan where they want to go and how the training fits into this.
Skills with long term benefits
Microsoft Excel remains one of the most well-used programs in businesses around the world and also has many applications in homes such as managing a household budget. Excel spreadsheets can be used to process large amounts of data, create graphs and charts, track client purchases, and much more. This means that learning Excel properly and having training on it is a skill with long term benefits.
For the employee, they learn to comprehensively use a popular program and have advanced skills they can demonstrate to help them in their career. For the employer, their staff are more efficient, confident in their use of the software and therefore lose less time figuring things out. There is also the benefit for both that employees are invested in and feel valued, improving loyalty and making for better.
How to book your Excel Course
Interested in booking a space on one of our Microsoft Excel courses or want to find out more details? Fill out our contact form or call us today on 01454 203 355.
