It’s not surprising that training employees well manifests numerous benefits in the workplace, especially for small businesses. It allows leaders to set a standard for how the business operates. It helps keep employees safe. It helps improve customer relations and satisfaction and increases productivity and efficiency. However, at many small businesses, training is performed on an ad hoc basis, without the ability to measure results or maintain consistency. This is akin to a school without a curriculum. Professors wouldn’t know which subjects to cover, how they should cover them, or in what order. That’s why it's important for businesses, no matter how small, to create training programs and stick with them. First, it’s important to understand who needs to know what. While cross-training is important, not every employee needs to know everything. Some need to focus on customer service, while others need to know back-end accounting. Setting a training schedule is also important. Training should start the moment an employee is hired, and continue throughout their tenure at regular intervals. Goals and benchmarks must be set as well, in order to know how the training program is working, and what changes should be made to increase its effectiveness.