Never Stop Training: Employee Training Benefits

One of the best things you can do as a business owner is provide your staff with educational opportunities. This extended training helps your employees hone critical skills and gives job candidates an added incentive to sign on with your company. Here are some key employee training benefits that can significantly enhance your organization. 

What Qualifies As Employee Training? 

Employee training is “a planned set of activities for imparting knowledge to employees, such that it leads to a growth in job skills required for organizational growth. These could be technical, vocational, or management skills.” 

This training can take a variety of forms depending on your industry. For example, if you work in HVAC repair, training could include ongoing sessions with your teams to debrief them on new models, standards, and practices. If you run a marketing firm, your training might include pursuing HubSpot certifications or updating your staff on changes to the algorithms of different online platforms. 

No matter what ongoing educational opportunities you provide to your team, you can expect to see some key employee training benefits. Here are 7 of the most important. 

Increased Retention

It’s no secret that retaining employees has become significantly more complicated following the “Great Resignation.” While there are various reasons for this radical shift in worker preferences, one thing is clear: Employers need to adapt — fast. 

One factor driving employees to quit their jobs stems from a lack of opportunity to pursue the training necessary to grow their careers. In fact, 70% of employees report being “somewhat likely” to leave their jobs in favor of a company with more training opportunities. By contrast, retention rates are 30%–50% higher for companies with “strong learning cultures.”

Now, think of the difference a 30% increase in employee retention could make for your business! The estimated cost of replacing an employee is 50%–200% of that person’s salary. So, if you had 100 employees, each making $40,000 a year, and you prevented 30 of them from leaving by offering ongoing training on the lower end, you would save your business $600,000 every year. On the higher end, you might save as much as $2.4 million. 

That’s why it’s crucial to offer essential employee educational opportunities and frequently review with your staff what kinds of programs would benefit them. In doing so, you will set your workforce up for long-term sustainability and success. 

Heightened Workplace Happiness

Few things are more stressful than feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing at work. It can also be disheartening to feel like your skill set is stagnating and becoming obsolete. That’s why training your teams is essential if you want people to feel happy and fulfilled. In fact, people who pursue learning opportunities are work are 21% more likely to be satisfied with their position. 

That happiness has a compounding effect over time. Happy workers are 13% more productive and are much less likely to quit or experience serious health issues. Imagine the impact on your business if every worker was just 13% more productive. If your sales team generally sold $30,000 per month, they would be selling $3,900 more. Over a year, that would mean $46,800 more revenue for your business, just based on ensuring your employees are happy. 

So, don’t miss out on a crucial piece of the employee happiness puzzle. Offer frequent and meaningful training opportunities to your staff. 

Improved Sense Of Community

Group training allows your employees to get to know each other through participating in something together. This is especially true of interactive training or workshops where employees are encouraged to team up for activities. 

Interactive training can take various forms, including the following: 

• Role-playing, where participants act out roles so they can learn how to handle a variety of scenarios. This is especially helpful for training employees on handling disgruntled clients, partners, or suppliers. 
• Brainstorming, where participants come up with ideas or solutions as a group to address a hypothetical problem or scenario 
• Collaborating on a deliverable, where participants team up to complete a project and present it to the training leaders

These types of training exercises allow your staff to work together in low-pressure environments to learn new skills while getting to know each other. That can be a major game-changer if you’re trying to build a solid, cohesive company culture. 

Boosted Productivity 

Believe it or not, 74% of workers say a lack of workplace educational and personal development opportunities prevents them from reaching their full potential. That’s a serious problem if you want to maximize the potential of your existing workforce, especially when you consider what a massive difference a comprehensive training program can make for your bottom line. 

Research conducted by the Association for Talent Development found that organizations with comprehensive training programs saw 218% higher income per employee than companies without formalized training. Those organizations also benefited from a 24% higher profit margin than those that spent less on training. If that’s not a sign that training makes a big difference in employee productivity, what is? 

Reduced Employee Costs

As previously stated, training saves money by reducing employee turnover. But it also allows employees to do their jobs more efficiently and with higher quality, reducing the overall cost of employee labor. This is also one of the employee training benefits that compound over time. The more training employees receive, the more they will have a chance to practice critical skills. Then they become more efficient, and over time, that translates to major savings and, by extension, higher profits. 

Improved Management

Fifty-nine percent of managers who oversee 1–2 employees report they have had no training, and 41% of managers who oversee 3–5 report the same. These statistics are very concerning because training your management team is vital to sustaining a healthy work environment, especially if you promote internal candidates with little or no prior experience. Without this crucial training, they will not be equipped to handle their key role, which can cause significant issues for the company. 

Poorly trained managers make rash decisions, don’t understand how to communicate with their teams properly, and don’t know how to keep projects on track. With 65% of employees stating they would prefer a good boss instead of a raise, that can spell disaster if you want to retain candidates. 

However, providing in-depth training for your managers empowers them to tackle problems effectively within your organization. This will boost your business’s key performance indicators and benefit everyone involved. 

Better Potential Employees

Comprehensive training opportunities are essential if you want to attract highly qualified applicants. In fact, 76% of employees believe companies that offer extra training opportunities for their staff are more appealing. Similarly, 61% of workers in the United States consider a company’s career development opportunities when reviewing potential job opportunities. That means when you interview top candidates, 3 out of every 4 will be put off if you don’t have a solid training program in place. So, have some great options in place and explain the specifics of your program to the candidates you interview. 

So, What Training Resources Should You Invest In? 

The resources you invest in depend on your business’s industry. Here are some ideas to get you started. 

Business:

•  HubSpot offers a variety of free digital training programs and certification opportunities for areas like social media marketing, revenue operations, and more. 
• LinkedIn also offers many different certification programs and courses across various topics. This catalog is offered digitally and can be completed at the user’s pace. 
• Sometimes CRMs or employee management clients (like Paylocity) will offer a variety of training modules you can assign to your staff.
• Master classes, seminars, and local business conventions are great places to encourage your employees to network and learn about new topics. 

Technical Training (Trades): 

• Offering opportunities to pursue certifications in disciplines both inside and outside of your niche is an excellent way to invest in the skill level of your workforce. For example, if you run a plumbing business, offer HVAC certification programs to your workers because there is a good deal of crossover. This will also help you attract candidates who are interested in expanding their certification collection. 
• Regular safety training is essential for keeping your staff safe and may be a legal requirement depending on your niche. 
• Any time you purchase new equipment for your company, brief your staff on how to use the new items. This will prevent mistakes that can damage the equipment, result in improper product installation, or even harm the user. 
• Management training courses are a great way to encourage your highest performing workers to pursue leadership opportunities. You can also quickly gauge who would make a good foreman or co-foreman when it comes time to promote someone. 

Software Training:

• CRM training is vital if you want your office employees to take full advantage of all of the features. Most CRMs offer these training modules as part of your professional package or may assign you an account manager to host training for your staff. If you are unsure of what your CRM client offers, don’t be afraid to ask. 
• Training in programs like Microsoft Office can be beneficial if you need to work with complex documents. This will allow your staff to learn more about the features of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. 
• Automation software can be very beneficial if you need to put more tedious tasks on autopilot. But it will be a fruitless investment if your staff doesn’t know how to use the system properly. That’s why offering a training course for these programs is crucial. 

Customer Service:

• Customer service can be tricky, especially if you frequently work with difficult clients. Briefing your staff on how to handle these situations will empower them to act appropriately in the middle of a challenging run-in. 
• Procedural training will give your staff a better idea of what you expect during customer interactions. Explain how you expect them to greet customers, provide examples of language you want them to use, and share specific deals you want them to promote. 

Management Training:

• Leadership training can teach your trainers the fundamentals of leading a team, how to give instruction, and how to take ownership of their teams. 
• Communication training is vital for inexperienced managers or those who come from a background where communication wasn’t a priority. This training will teach your leadership staff how to instruct their teams effectively and respectfully, which is essential if you want to retain employees. 
• Project management training will ensure your managers know how to plan a project, keep it on track, motivate their teams, and deliver an excellent product. 

Soft Skills:

• Offering various training programs for “soft skills” like public speaking, networking, and communication can help boost your staff performance. Everyone benefits when they work with better communicators, writers, presenters, etc. 

Employee training benefits are just the beginning when reaping the rewards of employee education. By implementing high-quality training opportunities at your company, you invest in your employees, managers, and company culture. That translates over time to higher employee retention rates, higher return on investment, and a boost in key performance indicators. 

So, what are you waiting for? Start researching how you can invest in your employees’ education today!