Published on October 3rd, 2020 | by Sunit Nandi

Why employee training is the best investment you could make

When you’re running a large enterprise, employee training can sometimes feel like it gets in the way of work. You really want to see your employees completing their tasks and busy in their roles, and it’s frustrating when you have to add another day onto the project deadline because someone has a training session.

But that’s only because you’ve lost track of the many benefits of employee training for your business. Employee training is one of the main factors that drives business growth. It can improve productivity, boost your brand reputation, and make your business more efficient and resilient. That’s not something you want to sacrifice.

Employee Training Enhances Productivity

It’s common sense that an employee who knows how to do their job properly will be more productive than someone who’s been left to work it out for themselves as they go along. When you carry out full employee onboarding, taking the time to explain their responsibilities and obligations to new employees, you see that new hires master their role far more quickly.

Additionally, employees who’ve received effective employee training feel more confidence. That makes them more willing to stretch themselves that little bit further to meet a tight deadline or achieve a tough target, and empowered to ask for clarification when they are confused about an assignment instead of trying to muddle through.

Employee Training Improves RoI from Business Software

Business software, project management platforms, time management apps, and other shiny tools are touted everywhere in the business world, promising to make your organization more efficient, your workers more productive, and your profits more impressive. But you’ll only see that kind of impact from your tech stack if your employees adopt them fully.

All too often, executives get sidetracked by the tools and forget to train their workers in how to use them. Without proper training, your employees are liable to ignore new software in favor of the old processes that they are already familiar with, or to only partially adopt it without fully applying all the benefits that it could bring. Employee training needs to go hand in hand with the introduction of any new tech.

Employee Training Raises Efficiency Within the Company

We call it human resources, so it makes sense to maximize those resources as much as possible. Employee training gives you an opportunity to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your employees, and then to address their weaknesses and expand upon their strengths so that your business operates more efficiently.

Employee training also helps you discover and plug the skills gaps within your organization as a whole. McKinsey reported that 87% of executives said that they saw skills gaps among their employees, or expected them to appear within a few years. Once you know where they lie, you can decide whether you need to hire new talent, or if you can reskill or retrain employees to fill those gaps internally.

Employee Training Makes your Business More Resilient

As well as facing the need to adapt to a fast-changing business world where enterprises need new skills that weren’t even on the radar a decade ago, the coronavirus pandemic made business resilience even more desirable.

In 2019, a PWC survey of CEOs found that 55% said that the skills gap is preventing them from innovating efficiently, and that 46% would use employee training to resolve that challenge. When COVID-19 appeared, employee training became even more urgent to help companies shift to new business models. Employees needed to learn how to handle video sales, managers had to learn how to communicate with remote workers, and businesses had to shift strategies to accommodate a sudden sea-change in the markets. With employee training, you can equip your workforce with the transferable skills that help your organization survive.

Employee Training Increases Employee Engagement

It’s already a given in the business world that employees who feel engaged with the enterprise are more productive than those who are disaffected and have one mental foot out the door. Employee training is a key way to increase employee engagement, as your workers feel that you care about their personal and professional development and want to help them move ahead in their career.

Employee training includes transmitting your corporate culture and values as well as training employees in hard and soft work skills. Fun activities that help employees get to know each other improves their ability to work as a team and creates a positive atmosphere in the workplace. Additionally, engaged employees who feel that the work they do contributes to the company’s success experience more satisfaction from their work and are motivated to work harder.

Employee Training Cuts your HR Costs

If you view employee training as a drain on the budget, you’re looking at it the wrong way. The costs of hiring and onboarding new employees is high, and when turnover rises, those costs multiply. Employee training programs have the dual benefit of helping you attract the best talent more easily, and retain your own top employees.

For 56% of workers, opportunities for career growth are the most important factor when they look for a job, making it a more significant issue than compensation, while 73% are significantly more likely to continue working at an organization that offers skill-building opportunities. On the flip side, 38% of jobseekers agree that they would reject a company immediately if it had poor employee reviews.

Employee Training is your Company’s Best Investment

Investing in training your employees is one of the best ways to improve your business overall. By running employee training programs, your enterprise can reduce the cost of hiring and retaining talent, sharpen RoI on new tech, increase productivity, resilience, and efficiency across the organization, and improve employee engagement to drive your business forward, ready for whatever might come along.

Tags: best, employee training, investment

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.