Are you questioning whether or not you’re spending too much training employees?
If so, the answer should be no, you’re not. And it may be that you should actually be spending more.
Your employees are your organization’s most valuable asset, and training is going to demonstrate a tangible return on investment.
Here are 9 reasons you should consider investing more in employee training:
- Training increases engagement; engagement improves productivity. The equation is one that’s tried and true. Today’s businesses are about working smarter, cutting costs and still maintaining or improving output. When employees are well-trained and continually developed they’re more engaged. When they’re more engaged, they’re going to be more focused and interested in being as productive as possible. You may be putting in more as far as training costs, but you’ll be contributing less in other places.
- It’s less expensive to recruit from within. Rather than having to turn to outside recruitment methods to fill positions, investing in training employees from the time their hired will expand your pool when it’s time to recruit. You’ll save not only time but also money in the process. Plus, when you recruit from within it’s a good way to build a stronger succession plan, be more prepared for the future and ensure your employees feel appreciated.
- Worried your employees will look elsewhere for a better offer? Train them. When you’re training and developing employees on a regular basis, they’re more likely to feel loyal to your company. This is important in today’s marketplace where reliable employees have abundant opportunities, and job hopping is commonplace.
- Minimize downtime if you lose an employee. Let’s say many of your employees are nearing retirement age, or perhaps you’re in a specialized industry that requires particular If you lose one or more employees at an inopportune time, does your entire company come to a halt? The ideal answer would be no. When you train and more specifically cross-train employees, you’re minimizing the risks associated with losing a key employee.
- Reducing turnover is an important goal for a lot of companies right now. One of the reasons employees are most likely to leave an organization is because they don’t feel well-trained, or they’re frustrated. Reduce their frustration, help them feel prepared for a variety of situations and empower them to be strong employees—all of which can be accomplished through training and all of which will reduce turnover.
- Position yourself for the future. If you’re in a competitive industry or one that’s constantly changing, keeping up and remaining at the top can be a difficult and intimidating prospect. When you’re willing to invest in long-term training and development for employees, you’re not only putting yourself in a beneficial current position, but you’re proactively preparing for the future.
- Mitigate risk. Employees aren’t just trained in things like customer service skills. They should also be thoroughly trained in compliance-based issues like diversity training and also safety skills. If you want to avoid lawsuits and other legal matters that occur as a result of compliance problems, invest more in training. Compliance training shouldn’t be something that happens just during onboarding. To truly have the safest and most legally compliant workplace it should happen on a regular basis, as part of an overall development plan.
- With the proliferation of the Internet we’ve all heard countless stories about companies with PR nightmares on their hands, often the result of poor customer service. Even small mom-and-pop companies have fallen victim to the viral customer service nightmare story. If you want to avoid being in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, now is the time to consider putting more into your customer service training program. Even employees that don’t regularly interact with the public should be well-versed in customer service methods and protocols.
- Your employees should be the best brand ambassadors for your company, but how can they do this if they don’t know what they’re talking about? Train employees in every area of your business including your brand identity. Employees can be your strongest marketing tool if you’re willing to invest in training.
These are our top 9 reasons you should be investing more in training. With the use of e-Learning, investing in training requires very little time or money compared to outdated training methods. You can design and deploy training and development within a matter of minutes, and using eLeaP’s LMS you can also tailor training to your specific budget.