Employees are your companies most valuable asset; and their training and development is something you should invest heavily in. But of course, we are going to say that; so let’s explore the reasons why you should invest in employee training as a part of your overall employee engagement strategy.

According to Linked In’s 2018 workforce learning report 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.

Personal development isn’t seen as a perk in today’s world; it is expected by today’s talent.  Training and developing your people will give you a competitive advantage and help to attract talent into your company.

Investing in your employers learning and development and allowing them to flourish will enhance your workforce’s engagement, productivity and team loyalty. Are you doing enough to provide ongoing learning opportunities?

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay” Henry Ford 

Companies dedicated to ongoing professional development, mentoring and skill advancement will have a more committed team. It signals that an employer values their people and are actively interested in their success. When staff retention issues do crop up, it is easy to want to blame anyone but yourself.

Staff turnover can have a huge impact on an organisation – productivity loss, time waiting for new staff to become fully effective, costs of advertising and agency fees, costs of an equipment/ uniform. In the UK the average cost of employee turnover is around £11,000 but it is way higher for sales and senior staff.  In one of our studies, the cost of a sales person for one year was in excess of £85,000.

When companies invest in training and development employee loyalty increases, they feel valued and appreciated. Loyal employees are more motivated and more engaged which in turn makes them more productive with a higher quality and quantity of work output.

If you’re not convinced yet, another benefit of training and developing your people is in providing more flexibility for your company. Staff who are more trained and developed, are better able to respond to changes in the market or the business, which ensures long term company success.

So, how can we design training that increases engagement?

• Employees value a positive environment more than their pay. Follow our 80/20 principle of strengths focus – spend 80% of time developing, building and using their strengths, with 20% of time developing their weaknesses. This will keep them at the top of their game and boost motivation, confidence and positivity.
• Managers can make or break staff happiness and retention. Whilst you can’t magic up that spark between manager and employee, you can train line managers to support their employees and provide behaviour and performance training. Managers must understand that developing their people and teams is a key responsibility, and it’s what helps to keep their teams engaged.
• Soft skills matter too and are often overlooked but play an important part in day to day operations. The Soft skills companies need most are leadership, communication, collaboration and time management. They are also skills that can be continually improved upon.
• Succession planning – some employees will want to become expert practitioners or subject matter experts’, others will want to develop their careers up a management ladder. By using both skill improvement training and leadership development you can propel your employees along their desired track and you demonstrate your commitment to them professionally.

Your business is a community – for you, your team, your managers and your employees. And communities thrive best when everyone in it feels included, valued, and trusted. The more engaged your employees are the more productive they become!

Now is the time to start thinking about your training strategy for the remainder of 2019 and beyond. Check out what we have to offer here.