Expanding knowledge and learning new skills can enhance your employees' abilities to perform well on the job, and seminars are an excellent way to provide that training for them. Whether it's customer service, management, leadership or other topics, a wide range of seminar topics exist to help you with the goal of continuing education for your employees.

Inform employees from their initial hire that continuing education with seminars is an expectation. In some industries, this isn't just a suggestion but a requirement. Additional training can be a great employee asset on their career path within the company.

Consider the following information regarding business seminars:

1. The seminars' format can make a difference. Will you learn better in a smaller, interactive setting or from a dynamic speaker in front of a large audience?

2. Offering your employees training via seminars may create higher loyalty and morale among employees as it shows that you are willing to invest in them and the future of your company.

3. Some seminars offer advice and knowledge presented by leading national experts. Although it can be an investment, that kind of experience can be priceless.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find seminars to attend

A seminar in a distant city may seem like the most costly option when you figure in the conference fee, hotels and meals. But it may be beneficial to send a few in top management. Those individuals can then come back and share information they've learned from the seminar with others.

I recommend: Search for business seminars near you by clicking on the map at National Seminars Group. The American Management Association offers one or multiple day workshops on 20 different business topics.

Schedule a seminars provider to come to your office

Another option would be to invite speakers to your business. The costs to you would include the speaker's fee and most likely any travel arrangements made for the presenter. However, an on-site seminar would be a good option to boost employee attendance. You could even make the training mandatory if necessary.

I recommend: Targeted training on-site can be provided by SkillPath. For training on business and technical writing, as well as grammar and punctuation, consider Alexander Communications, based in San Francisco, CA.

Utilize seminars information via online learning

If you don't have the funds to send employees to a conference or to bring a speaker to you, consider supplying books, audio tapes and other materials for your employees to listen to. There are other options, too, such as teleconferences, coaching and webinars that you may find helpful.

I recommend: If you conduct business in Missouri, a great resource is the Missouri Small Business Development Centers, which offers online learning, most of it for free. Access the webinars and audio conferences library from Fred Pryor Seminars.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Some suggest that on-site training is the most effective, as you have more control over training conditions such as the format, the site and scheduling.