Do you want to know why training is important for employees? If yes, then read on to discover the best benefits employee training can offer your organization.
Employees need to align with the constant changes in technology and workplace strategies in terms of skills, knowledge, abilities, and values.
One of the most effective ways to improve the skills and knowledge of your employees is through training. Exposing employees to relevant training will improve your company’s performance and also increase the results generated in the workplace.
Furthermore, employee training contributes to the success of businesses throughout the world. Apart from the fact that these training programs improve employees’ skills, they also improve company culture and boost employee productivity.
In this article, I explain why training is important for employees and also provide a list of the different categories of employee training.
Importance of Training Employees for an Organization
Before you even consider how you can deliver great training, it is important to understand why training is important for employees.
Here are some of the why you need to train your employees:
1. It is Expensive to Hire New Employees
Hiring new employees is expensive. According to a survey by the go2HR Society, 40 percent of employees leave their roles within the first year of their employment due to a lack of good training opportunities.
Also, a report published by the Center for American Progress stated that it costs about 20 percent of the annual salary to replace an employee that earns between $30,000 and $50,000.
With these statistics in mind, companies that offer industry-standard training will enjoy the engaged staff and also retain more employees.
Replacing staff costs money, so it makes a lot of sense to train current employees and improve their retention.
2. Training Improves Employees’ Efficiency
Another reason why training is important for employees is that trained employees are efficient. It plays a key role in improving productivity and boosting the performance of employees.
When your employees complete tasks more efficiently through the use of effective methods, your business will enjoy these benefits:
- They execute more tasks within a specific period; thereby improving return on investment (in other words, the hourly wage your employees earn).
- Your customers will be satisfied when you deliver services promptly.
3. It Improves the Production Standards of Employees
It’s not getting work done quickly that matters, but getting it done properly. Well-trained employees have a higher chance of delivering top-quality results the first time around; this helps to reduce mistakes.
It also reduces the amount of time that is wasted on reworking.
4. Employee Training Retains and Grows a Company’s Database
Customer satisfaction is another reason why training is important for employees. Customers leaving your business is bad. There is a general belief that it is cheaper to maintain existing customers than to get new ones.
It is a double loss when you lose a client; apart from losing the ongoing revenue the customer generates for your business, they may also not be directing prospective customers to you.
A satisfied customer, on the other hand, can give your business a double win. Apart from becoming long-term customers, they are also likely to refer others to your business.
5. Employee Training Does Not Have to Be Costly
The Training Industry Report published in 2014 reveals that 28.5 percent of training hours were executed through online or computer-based technologies, while 29.1 percent of training hours were done through blended learning techniques.
Elucidat and other e-learning tools allow organizations to create top-quality e-learning and support aids through the use of in-house subject matter professionals without using expensive tech support.
Using your in-house expertise to create online training resources, face-to-face skill developing sessions, or even informal sessions are great means of introducing learning into your company at a cheaper cost.
6. Training Improves Employee Job Satisfaction
Employees that have access to training programs have an upper hand over those in other organizations that are left to find training opportunities on their own.
When companies invest in their employees’ training, it shows that they value their employees.
This creates a supportive workplace. Training programs give employees access to training they wouldn’t have heard about. When employees feel challenged and appreciated through training, they will feel more satisfied in their jobs.
7. Training Addresses Employee Weaknesses
Most employees have some form of weakness in their workplace. Training your employees strengthens the skills that they need to improve.
A training program brings employees to a higher level so that they can have the same skills and knowledge. This reduces any weak link that is in the company that depends on others to execute basic tasks.
Employee training creates a knowledgeable staff with employees that can stand in for others and work independently without needing any help or supervision from others.
8. Training Increases Employee Engagement
Engaged employees have a high productivity level. Employee training helps you to engage your staff members and also enables them to engage with you.
It creates the sharing of two-way communication, opinions, and internal workings; this makes your employees to be updated on what’s happening in your company.
Engaged employees are more emotionally invested. They care about what they need to do and are willing to invest their energy and time into the growth of the company.
9. It Tracks Your Staff’s Skills
E-learning, especially with a learning management system, allows you to track the training programs that your employees have undergone.
The insightful reports you get from this allow you to know if your they are updated with their training. Reports are powerful if you are offering onboarding training or if you want to prove that training has occurred.
By tracking your training, you will be able to provide better training to your employees. You will also be able to identify the content they’re engaging with thereby enabling you to improve your course content based on the insights generated.
In a nutshell, tracking your employees’ skills will give your employees better training that improves your company’s growth.
10. Training Helps Employees Learn About Technology and Industry Changes
Employee training programs help employees to be updated on the changes in their industry in terms of safety, quality standards, and ethics. They also help employees to discover new ways of thinking and working.
By using updated technology and processes to educate workers, employees will produce better outcomes for themselves and their employees.
11. Training Creates Consistency in an Organization
It is not easy to create consistency in an organization. However, training reduces the gap between your employees. Each employee will have a good knowledge of their individual and team goals; this puts them on the same page.
Also, since employees are receiving the same training, they will share responsibility and will also be aware of their roles in the team.
Categories of Training for Employees
Employees can undertake different categories of training in and out of the workplace. These categories include:
Management Training
There are different levels of management training that employees can undergo when they are promoted to higher levels in a company. This form of training is designed to prepare employees for higher tasks they will encounter in the company.
Sales Training
Employees in the sales and marketing industries may need to undergo sales training to develop their skills in selling an organization’s products and services.
On-The-Job Training
Employees that are just starting at a company may undergo on-the-job training to help them learn what they need to do and the skills they need to develop for their position.
Mentorship
In some cases, most especially for entry-level employees, employees may need to work under the supervision of experienced staff to learn more about what the job entails and also gain more experience required to excel in a company.
In-House Training
Most companies carry out different forms of in-house training for their members of staff.
One type of this training involves having experienced staff of the company serving as facilitators, while another type involves hiring an external trainer to teach members of the staff specific skills.
Personal Study
Your employees may also decide to study on their own to train themselves on a specific topic of interest. In this case, they can find different reference materials for the study.
Blended Training
Blended training involves the process of employees undergoing training that blends the classroom with online learning.
What are the Training Needs of Employees?
Employees need different competencies to perform their tasks well. These competencies include the following:
- Analytical skills
- Adaptability
- Action orientation
- Customer focus
- Employee development
- Decision making
- Customer focus
- Communication
- Business knowledge
How Does Training Improve Employees’ Performance?
Employee training programs are important in improving the performance of employees.
According to a report published by The International Journal of Business and Management Research in 2019, 90 percent of those studied agreed that training programs improved their performance.
Companies can provide different types of physical or online training opportunities for their employees. They can also use in-house training or third-party training to provide these opportunities.
The following are ways through which employees’ performance can be improved by training:
- Development of new responsibilities
- Addressing the findings of the performance review
- Coping with remote work, and
- Development of soft skills
FAQs
What is employee training?
Employee training refers to a program that is aimed at increasing the technical skills, efficiency, knowledge, and value to execute a specific task in a better way.
It increases the required skills and also develops employees and the overall development of the company.
Why is employee training important?
The employee training program offers employees the opportunity to improve their skills. It gives employees an in-depth understanding of their responsibilities and the skills required to do their job.
This will not only boost their confidence but will also enhance their performance.
What are the benefits of training employees?
Some of the benefits of having employee training include the following:
- Improved capacity to adopt new technologies and methods.
- It helps organizations to be in tune with the latest changes and trends in the industry.
- Increased job satisfaction and improved morale, and
- It improves the productivity of employees.
Why is it important to train employees to interact?
Employees should be trained to interact because positive interactions breed good feelings, enhance work satisfaction, and boost morale.
Negative interactions, on the other hand, lead to anxiety, confusion, tension, and uncertainty. These may negatively affect employees’ efficiency and the organization’s productivity.
Conclusion
It is now clear why training is important for employees. Investing in employee training is crucial to the success of an organization.
A Deloitte report on increasing workplace change stated that training budgets keep increasing every year. It is reasonable to expect this kind of trend because there is an increasing change in technological advancements.
Thus, it becomes more competitive to win customers.
A well-trained workforce will be more profitable than a poorly-trained one. Judging from this, isn’t it reasonable to be a business owner that focuses on employee training?
LMS Hero provides top-quality information about the e-learning industry. Check out this article to learn about the benefits of online learning.
Thanks for reading.
