Why are Training and Development Important? 11 Benefits of Training and Development in an Organization

If you want to know why training and development are important in the workplace, you’ve come to the right place.

Training and development are important functions in this ever-evolving and fast-paced business world. Unfortunately, it is one of the things that most companies pay little attention to.

However, organizing training and development sessions for employees has a huge value. It helps employees to gain new skills, perform better, develop existing skills, enhance productivity, and be better employees.

Organizations need to do all it takes to help their employees perform at their best since an organization reflects the individual achievements of employees.

In this article, I will discuss different reasons why training and development are important. I will also shed light on how employers can create effective training and development programs.

What is Training and Development?

Training and development refer to the process of aligning employee goals and performance with those of the company.

Those that are in charge of employee development need to identify the skills that employees must develop and provide the right programs that can help to develop such skills.

According to research, organizations that invest in employee training and development enjoy an increase in sales and profits, unlike organizations that do not consider employee engagement. They also lead to employee engagement.

An efficient, engaged, and competitive workforce are crucial to the financial performance of a company. Also, most employees will stay for a longer period when an organization takes career development seriously.

Furthermore, training and development help organizations improve job satisfaction, increase productivity, and boost profit. Businesses with dedicated and interested employees usually record 17% more productivity.

Why is Training and Development Important?

Outlined below are ways through which training and development help companies to reach their goals:

1. Training and Development Increases Employee Retention Rate

Retention is a huge challenge for companies. However, you can retain strong employees by focusing on career development. Effectively training and developing your employees can be used as competitive tools when hiring new employees.

Career development activities help employees to feel valuable; this enhances loyalty, thereby helping companies to retain more employees while leading to a 59 percent lower staff turnover.

2. Training and Development Enhance Business Growth

Training employees with leadership skills can contribute to the growth and evolution of a business. Leadership talent can be detected through new hires. Also, HR professionals can choose managerial candidates from current employees.

An established leadership development program plays a key role in helping a company to be focused on actualizing future business goals.

3. Training and Development Empower the Workers in an Organization

Leaders that are empowered in an organization usually influence employees and also gain employees’ trust. As a result, the employees will feel valued and will become more confident in their work.

More so, the employees will feel independent and make decisions about the duties they perform.

4. They Increase Workplace Engagement

Encouraging the consistent engagement of workers can reduce boredom in the workplace. If left unchecked, boredom can cause dissatisfaction and unproductive working habits.

Consistent training and development help in preventing idleness at the workplace and also helps businesses to establish constant re-evaluation of employees, processes, and skills.

It also influences workplace culture by enhancing company analysis and planning since employers need to review their employees and also evaluate growth and development opportunities that exist internally in the organization.

According to the empowerment and employee engagement data that Forbes gathered from over 7,000 employees, employees that were at a low level of empowerment were assigned low rankings of the 24th percentile.

However, those with a high level of empowerment were assigned high rankings of the 79th percentile.

5. Training and Development Create Positive Workplace Relationships

By giving employees access to opportunities to develop their skills, learn new topics, and broaden their knowledge, employees will be able to bond together. During the training and development sessions, employees solve issues encountered together.

Also, they can rely on one another for different learning opportunities by working with colleagues that have specific expertise in some areas. When employees learn from each other’s strengths, the relationships can boost engagement and retention.

6. They Improve an Organization’s Bottom Line

The greatest assets of an organization are the employees. The right team can contribute to the growth and development of a company.

Learning and development programs that focus on employees’ strengths can help companies to increase their profits. According to an IBM study, well-trained employees increase productivity.

Equipping your employees with the ability to perform their duties better is a good way to improve your company’s bottom line.

The best way to get the best out of your employees and empower them to succeed is to train them and help them develop their skills.

7. They Improve Customer Satisfaction

In most cases, the information customers need can be found on community boards or a company’s website. However, why do customers still contact a company?

Customers consider employees as experts in their niches. They believe employees can give them the information they need via dialogue.

When a customer decides to speak with an employee, the employee must know about the company’s products and services to hold a fruitful conversation.

Training and development will help employees to communicate with customers and provide the answers they appreciate. It empowers employees to handle effective conversations with customers. This helps in increasing customer satisfaction.

8. They Improve Performance

Training and development improve performance by addressing employees’ weaknesses and shortcomings. It also increases employees’ strengths and helps them acquire new skills.

Organizations need to create training and development programs that will meet the needs of relevant employees.

When every department has targeted training groups (such as QA training, product development training, PMP, and lots more), the individual challenges of the employees in each department will be met and their performance will improve.

9. Training and Development Create a Skilled and Motivated Workforce

Training and development increase the productivity of the workforce and also motivates employees to contribute their best to the company. It increases the confidence of employees themselves and also makes them enthusiastic about their work.

Effective training and development programs help employees to adapt to innovations and technological changes easily.

10. They Encourage the Optimum Use of Human Resources

Human resources must be trained to improve their potential.

Training employees and helping them develop their skills help organizations to channel their employees’ full potential toward the growth of the company.

11. Training and Development Reduce Risk

Training and development of employees reduce risk through workplace safety training and compliance training initiatives.

Companies must ensure that employees discharge their duties in a safe environment.

Companies must train their employees to maintain a safe workplace.

By implementing the right ethics training program, employees will be able to work more productively and also reduce the risk of lawsuits for not adhering to industry standards in terms of safety.

Who Should Get Involved in Training and Development?

Top executives such as managers and HR directors are often charged with the task of designing strategic planning programs. These usually comprise comprehensive employee training and development programs.

To leverage the benefits of training and development, HR staff are advancing their careers by enrolling in human resources programs.

What are the Strategies for Effective Development Training and Development Programs?

Focus on Developing Soft Skills

According to a LinkedIn Workplace Learning report, soft skill development was the main priority for developing talent in 2018. This is propelled by automation, industry change, and advancements in technology.

Adaptable and critical thinkers that can effectively communicate with colleagues and customers are the assets that the current workplace requires.

Create Personalized Employee Development Programs

Training and development programs were previously viewed as a one-size-fits-all approach. However, this approach does not support a growing and diversified workplace.

Training and development programs must be developed to meet the specific skills, learning approach, and technological fluency of employees.

Companies must think of their employees as consumers when they are designing a training and development program.

E-Learning

One of the major challenges of talent development is ensuring that employees create time to learn.

Employers must get rid of anything that can hinder employees from learning by training employees through the digital platforms of their choice.

You can deliver training and development programs via different platforms. The platforms must be personalized, easily accessible, and must also offer ongoing support.

Strategic Development Plan

Another strategy for developing training and development programs involves creating a strategic development plan.

Most jobs require digital abilities and more than seven million opportunities need some coding skills.

As the skills gap keeps increasing, employers must focus on training and developing their employees. The first step in creating a strategic development plan involves establishing business goals.

Employers need to consider the business factors and objectives they want to impact through their training programs. They must also decide the skills that employees need to develop while aligning such skills to the overall business objectives.

The strategic development plan must incorporate different stages for effectively tracking the different stages of the training and development program.

FAQs

What is the importance of training and development?

Training and developing employees helps organizations to make the best use of the overall worth of employees to the company. It also creates a motivated, highly-skilled, and enthusiastic workforce.

Training and developing employees’ skills also motivate them to contribute their best toward actualizing the goals of the organization.

Why is training and development important for employees?

Training and development improve employee engagement. Engagement is important to improving the financial performance of an organization.

By investing in the professional advancement and career development of your employees, you will be able to retain more employees.

How does training improve performance?

Training improves performance by giving employees an idea of how they should complete their duties and tasks. It also helps them know their managers’ expectations. Training and development play a key role in centralizing knowledge in the workplace.

How is training and development important in increasing productivity?

Consistent employee training helps employers to cultivate talents in their businesses. When you retrain employees on the skills they need to carry out their tasks, you will be able to increase productivity by preventing small mistakes from occurring.

It is less expensive to retrain current employees than to hire new employees.

Conclusion

As shown in this article, training and developing employees have a huge impact on the success of an organization.

Just like every other function in a company, you need to focus on delivering useful results for your organization while training and developing employees.

The most important thing is to treat your training and development programs seriously. You must also consider them as an investment that must yield tangible results.

Start by listing the skills gaps your employees have. Then think of how you can help your employees get to the level where they can carry out their duties amazingly.

Also, employers must think about the employees they are training. Consider their skill gaps and create appropriate programs to bridge those gaps.

Don’t forget that your employees are an incredible asset to your organization and they help you deliver value to your customers.

It is, therefore, necessary to invest in training and developing them so that they can stay and deliver an even better service. You can also check out this guide to learn more about why training is important for employees.

Thanks for reading.