When business owners think about education and training for their employees, the most obvious reason for training is to equip employees with the necessary skills and abilities to perform their job to a minimum standard of competence. But there are more important reasons than that, not least of which is the ability to excel, and deliver a higher level of performance. This ultimately benefits not only the employer, but also their employees and even their customers.

Investing in education and training benefits employers, their employees, and ultimately, their customers. Well-trained employees are able to be more efficient and productive, and as a result worth more to their employer, meaning they justify higher compensation.

From the employer’s perspective, the benefits of investing in training are cumulative. An efficient crew means that the company’s workload can be scaled upwards. If your team can grow from doing work on one project a day to three, which is entirely possible, your productivity has tripled. That directly affects both the top line revenue and bottom line profitability of the company.

Increased productivity goes beyond new installations. If service techs who normally can make two service calls in the AM and two after lunch add a fifth service call into their day, that’s a 20 percent increase in productivity. Further to that, company sales people who’ve trained to polish their sales skills can expect a higher closing ratio, even if the total number of prospects they’ve got in their sales funnel has gone down. In addition, the benefits of a well-trained staff include other, less tangible, but still worthwhile benefits.

Carrying certifications from organizations like CEDIA or InfoComm contributes to building the company’s brand, and differentiating them from competitors. That perception of quality impacts how the business is promoted: When your salespeople talk to a customer, they can sell on value, or they can sell on price. Value exists at a wide range of costs, but with price, you can only talk about how low yours is. Selling your company’s expertise means clients are buying something they can feel good about, instead of a bottom-barrel installation from the guys who made the lowest bid.

One surprisingly common objection that business owners have to spending money on training is that their employees might decide to leverage their new skill level into a job somewhere else, or even leave to start a rival company. While that is a valid concern (and it does happen), the fact is that the benefits of more highly training personnel outweigh the potential downside.

Repeating what we covered earlier: Greater operational efficiencies will improve the bottom line. This doesn’t just benefit the employer; it also mean that the employee can earn higher compensation as a result. After all, aren’t you going to pay someone more if they’re worth more to the company? Besides, having untrained employees is a far worse choice. Let me ask you this: Would your company rather have highly trained employees who might leave or untrained employees who might stay?