Is Employee Training and Development Important?
The workforce is speaking, and many companies aren’t listening. 65% of people rate employee training and development programs as highly important when seeking employment.
Despite that, only 31% of the workforce receive training through their employers, and of those, 43% find the training received ineffective.
It’s not just employee desire that makes training important though. There is a shift happening in the workforce right now.
The Baby Boomer Generation is exiting the workforce and being replaced largely by unskilled workers just entering. Without a training program in place, companies will lose significant amounts of productivity until the new hires are prepared for their roles.
In the Midst of a Labor Crisis
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America continues to face a labor shortage. There are currently 11.3 million job openings across all industries. During the last quarter, there were 6.6 million hires and 6 million people leaving organizations.
When you consider that 363,000 of the 6 million people leaving positions were leaving permanently or semi-permanently, and a portion of the rest are accounted for in the 6.6 million hires, it is clear that there are not enough active job seekers to fill the open positions.
How Does Training Help?
The labor shortage combined with a need to train unskilled workers highlights how important it is to provide skills training to meet the workforce demands. With a training and employee development program in place, you can increase productivity and increase revenues.
Reduce Employee Turnover
Training programs show employees you are willing to invest in them, making them feel more valued. Training also helps them feel more confident in their roles, allowing them to feel more engaged.
Research shows that companies that provide training for their employees have a 30% to 50% higher employee retention rate than those that do not.
One company managed to reduce employee turnover from 89.6% to 56.7% by implementing an employee training and development program.
Develop Consistency
Did you know that 80% of workers believe consistent, ongoing training is important? That is because regular training that is consistent leads to consistency in workflow processes. You keep the processes fresh in their mind and highlight the importance of following those processes.
Training also allows you to consistently share your company’s core values with employees, which enhances your company culture.
Increase Productivity
Training helps employees improve their skills, in turn making them more effective and productive at their jobs.
A University of Pennsylvania study found that businesses that spend 10% of their revenue on capital improvements saw a 3.9% increase in productivity. That same 10% spent on employee training and development saw an 8.5% increase in productivity.
Training can also prepare employees for changes, making it easier for them to adapt and reducing any productivity loss due to these changes.
Reduce Required Supervision
When you provide skills and job training, you give employees more confidence to complete their jobs. This confidence helps them better manage their workloads, meaning less daily supervision is required.
Giving employees the skills they need to manage their work is also a great way to enhance their promotability.
Prepare Employees for New Roles
It is more cost-effective to promote in-house than to bring new people in to fill roles. If you provide training that can help employees prepare for leadership roles in your company, you make transitions easier and cut down even further on costs thanks to reduced productivity loss.
Regular training also provides another way to track employee progress. This makes it easier to determine which employees are the best fit for leadership roles.
Increase Company Profits
As employees become more productive and adaptable thanks to training, you reduce mistakes, increase production, and in turn increase profits for your company.
Companies that invest in employee training and development programs report 24% higher profits.
Online Training Makes Employee Development Programs More Effective
The problem many companies run into with training programs is the loss of productivity involved with formal, in-house training programs. Not only do these in-person training meetings take up a lot of time, but they can get expensive.
Online training provides a solution to this problem. You can assign training and let employees access it at their convenience. 89% of employees want the ability to do training at their convenience, and this reduces the interruptions to workflows.
Using online training also allows you to provide training using microlearning techniques. With short bursts of information that are easy to understand and easy to retain, employees can complete training in a fraction of the time while getting more out of it.
Online training also makes it easier to track employee training progress. You have built-in tracking and reporting tools that allow you to see all activity within the system.
Make Training Simple with a Customizable Online Training Management Platform
Infinit-I Workforce Solutions is a trusted online training and communication management platform. Our system is customizable so you can truly provide training to meet your company needs.
We also have a dedicated Client Success team available to help with any questions about the platform or provide helpful tips and suggestions to make your training program successful.
Request a demo to see how simple it is to put together an employee training and development program that can help you retain quality employees.