How UK Businesses Can Get More from Their L&D Budgets

Every year, UK businesses invest millions of pounds in software, cloud platforms and advanced data tools. Yet many organisations use only a small proportion of the features available to them.

The problem isn’t necessarily the software. Often, it’s the way employees are trained to use it.

When technology projects fail or stall, organisations may blame complicated software or resistance to change. But in many cases, employees simply don’t have the skills they need to use the technology effectively. Traditional training can leave important gaps, particularly when it doesn’t reflect the tasks employees carry out every day.

So, how can businesses make better use of the software they already have? There are four areas worth considering.

The 3 Common Problems with Traditional Corporate Training

1. Generic Training Doesn’t Meet Everyone’s Needs

Pre-recorded video libraries and large, multi-day courses can be useful, but they often provide the same training to everyone.

An accountant, a project manager and a sales director may all use Microsoft Excel or Power BI, but they are likely to use them in very different ways. Training that doesn’t reflect those differences may leave employees struggling to apply what they have learned to their own work.

2. Training Doesn’t Always Reflect Real-World Work

Learning new concepts using clean, simplified sample data is useful for getting started, but it doesn’t always prepare employees for the reality of their day-to-day work.

When employees return to their desks and encounter large, complicated spreadsheets or messy business data, they may fall back on the manual methods they used before their training.

Training is more effective when employees can work with realistic examples and problems that are relevant to their jobs.

3. IT Teams Can End Up Filling the Training Gap

When employees don’t have the skills they need, they often turn to their internal IT team for help.

IT staff may find themselves spending valuable time fixing spreadsheet formulas, helping with software features, adjusting permissions or producing basic reports. While some of this support is unavoidable, too much of it can take IT staff away from more important work such as cybersecurity, infrastructure and strategic technology projects.

A 4-Step Approach to More Effective Training

Rather than treating training as simply another business expense, organisations can take a more targeted approach that helps employees become more confident and productive with the software they use.

Step 1: Assess Your Employees’ Current Skills

Before booking training, take some time to understand what employees can already do and where they need help.

Rather than grouping everyone simply by job title, consider how they use software and data in their day-to-day work. For example:

• Everyday software users: May need to work more quickly and efficiently with the office applications they use every day, including better use of shortcuts, automation and other time-saving features.
• Data analysts and managers: May need more advanced skills in analysing data, creating dashboards and working with larger or more complex datasets.
• Project leaders: May need the skills to manage projects involving different teams, new technology and changes to established ways of working.

A clear understanding of these different needs makes it easier to provide the right training to the right people.

Step 2: Use Real Examples and Your Own Data

Training is more useful when employees can relate it directly to their work.

Where possible, choose training providers who can use your own examples, reporting requirements, templates and business processes during the course. Employees can then practise the skills they are learning on problems they are likely to encounter in their jobs.

This makes it easier to see how new skills can be applied immediately.

Step 3: Give Employees the Opportunity to Learn with an Instructor

Self-paced learning can be useful, particularly for simple tasks and basic compliance training. However, more advanced subjects often benefit from the opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance from an experienced instructor.

Instructor-led training allows employees to ask questions about the problems they encounter in their own work, work through examples with an instructor and resolve mistakes as they arise.

This can be particularly valuable when employees are learning advanced Excel, Power BI, data analysis or new AI tools, where understanding why something works can be just as important as knowing which buttons to press.

Step 4: Look at What Changes After the Training

Training shouldn’t end when the course finishes. Organisations can look at practical measures to see whether the training has made a difference.

For example:

• Are fewer routine software questions being sent to the IT service desk?
• Are employees completing regular reports more quickly?
• Are more people using features that were previously overlooked?
• Are employees becoming more confident in solving problems for themselves?

These measures can help organisations understand whether their training investment is delivering a practical benefit.

Partnering for Better Results

Getting more from business software isn’t simply about buying better technology. It is also about giving employees the skills and confidence to use the technology they already have.

For UK organisations looking for practical, instructor-led training, InferoTraining – Microsoft, Leadership & Data Courses UK provides tailored learning designed around real-world business needs. With more than 450 courses covering everything from core Microsoft applications to data analytics, project management and leadership development, they can help organisations develop the skills their employees need. With more than 450 courses covering everything from core Microsoft applications to data analytics, project management and leadership development, Infero Training can help organisations develop the skills their employees need.

By providing training that is relevant to employees’ actual work, organisations can improve productivity, reduce the pressure on internal IT teams and make better use of the software they have already invested in.