Companies are wary of training their employees. The fear for many companies is that they spend time and money developing people, only to see them take those newly acquired skills to another company. Studies show that this is not the case. Training actually can increase employee retention, when the training reinforces the value of the employee. High employee turnover costs business owners more in money in time and productivity than the cost of training. Benefits of training employees:
Higher-skilled employees
Training increases the amount of highly skilled employees that you have. Those highly-qualified employees can be used to impress clients, get funding and more. If you don’t put that investment in and your competitors do, you may find they are winning the market in your specialty area. Training shows appreciation for the hard work they do and, demonstrates how valuable they are to your company. Businesses often find that if they don’t invest in their employees, they may be easily won over by competitors trying to lure them away.
Save money on new hires
It can cost an extraordinary amount of money to hire new employees. And even if businesses do decide to take this route instead of training existing workers, who’s to say that new hires won’t end up leaving in the near future anyway. In addition, how many times have you heard people complain about a skill shortage– or curse the fact that out of the 100+ applications received for the last role you advertised, only five were even close to being qualified? The cost of recruiting and training a new hire aside, your current employees presence won’t be easy (and in some cases impossible) to replace. The best strategy is to avoid losing them in the first place.
More job satisfaction
Employees want to feel that the job they do is important to the success of the business and that the business is investing time and money in them to have the job done correctly, and at the highest level. Just like most successful businesses won’t remain in a stifling environment out of a sense of duty, or misguided loyalty, neither will a smart employee — especially if their skills are marketable.
Growth potential
Personal growth and development are a crucial element of what your organization can offer to any employee, and the benefits extend in every direction. Supporting their development ensures they’ll be more engaged, more productive, and better at what they do. If an employee feels as though their advancement is being stifled by their environment, they’re going to leave. It’s not due to a lack of loyalty, and it’s not their fault. If you provide the right training for your workforce, they will appreciate the lengths their employer is going to. Many times when employees leave they are looking at the future career potential of a new position and the skills they will gain from that position.
Training options
The opportunities you have to train and develop your employees are expanding every year. This make is easier to provide training. You don’t have to send every employee offsite for third-party training, either. You can create branded training sessions and host them via webinar, record the results and offer past classes as part of a training library on your company intranet.
There are many benefits of investing in a person’s career. Training is crucial to the ongoing development of the people you employ and their retention and success. Training increases the skilled employees that are working towards the success of your company. Supporting their development ensures they are more productive, and better at what they do. If you invest in your employee’s personal growth and career development they will be invested in the success of your company.