Training & Development: A Long Term Relationship

Employee training and development is at the forefront of an organisations success.

However, after the on-boarding and compliance training needs have been met, it’s easy to overlook training for long-standing employees who still seek development opportunities.

Employees who go through a structured on-boarding process are 69% more likely to remain

I’ve worked for a variety of organisations, all with their added perks and employee benefit packages.

Don’t get me wrong, extra holidays, discounted coffee’s and free fruit baskets on a Friday are all really nice perks in the short-term, but they don’t have any impact on my overall career development or add significant value to the Company which is why I eventually moved on; this is something organisations need to consider when they see their labour turnover steadily increase and employee performance dwindle.

Perks and employee benefits can come and go depending on a number of factors

For me, continued training and development prospects far outweigh anything else an organisation can offer and that is because perks and employee benefits can come and go depending on a number of factors – but training and development, if managed correctly, will be of added value to both the employee and organisation for the foreseeable future.

It’s essential to ensure your employees skills, ability and knowledge are continuously up to scratch.

Here, we take a look at a number of reasons why training and development should be offered and maintained throughout the whole employee life-cycle and not just used as a way to get employees on board.

On-boarding

Once an organisation secures the best employees as a new hire, there’s no time to slack.

Most organisations implement an on-boarding process that lasts less than a year which isn’t a problem if it is carefully structured and adhered to.

The article, “Putting out the Welcome Mat” by author Rebecca Ganzel, states that employees who go through a structured on-boarding process are 69% more likely to remain with the organisation after 3 years, than those who do not.

On-boarding shouldn’t be limited to an induction process and probationary review, but should extend to further appraisal systems and continuous progress monitoring by management to benefit the most.

Addressing Highlighted Weaknesses

Areas for improvement are easily picked up during the appraisal process, such as the probationary and annual reviews or 360 degree appraisal. You can use the hr software for it.

Most weaknesses originate from a lack of knowledge or skill; training can address these issues head on and is beneficial for both the employee’s confidence and motivation in the role and organisation having skilled staff to boost performance.

Improved Employee Performance and Productivity

Training and developing employees will increase improved performance and productivity as they will then have the right tools to conduct all aspects of their role.

With the ever changing demands of Clients and Business, an employee’s role can change a multitude of times throughout their career and so it’s worthwhile looking at the job description regularly and providing training to cover those areas of the role that have evolved.

Consistency across the Organisation

Having a quality training and development plan in place across the organisation means that identified training needs are dealt with around the same time; employees all progress in the right direction with continuous support from their managers and are following the same layout of how to conduct their roles in line with the needs of the business, which can be reviewed on an annual or 6 month basis.

Employee Satisfaction

People, by nature, like to learn and develop in many aspects of their life so work should be no exception.

If organisations are devoting time and energy alongside costs to train and develop employees, they are going to become better performers, have goals to work towards, be more likely to receive positive feedback and in turn feel more satisfied within they roles.

Compliance

Some roles require specific compulsory training to allow employees or an organisation to conduct work in that remit.

Failure to adhere to compliance needs can be a costly fault, so it is worthwhile to keep on top of what is required and get staff trained as and when needed – if you don’t, someone else will.

Individual Employee Development

From looking at all aspects of an individual’s role and using effective investigative tools such as the 360 degree appraisal review, organisations can focus on specific training needs to get the employee on the right path and engage them further.

Individual development management shows an organisation cares about their employees and is willing to invest in them, which in turn can grant loyalty from the employee to the organisation.

Succession Planning

By looking at areas of an organisation that you wish to grow and develop or by identifying vacancies which you can see are likely to become vacant, future skill shortages may be detected and therefore making a plan to train and develop new and existing staff to fill those gaps in key positions is not only better cost wise, but engagement wise also.

Staying Competitive

With things constantly moving forward and evolving at a fast pace, organisations need to stay on top of new and future trends to have any chance of remaining competitive and relevant.

This may mean embracing new technology systems or procedures and offering training or re-training to new and existing employees to have the right knowledge and tools to do continue to do their job.

Return on Investment

By conducting some pre and post-training assessments, organisations can measure the improvement of factors that matter to the success of their business; this can then be translated into financial return by means of saved time, staff productivity, labour turnover, increased sales etc.

If training and development was viewed as an investment to achieve business goals rather than as an additional expense then it would make more financial sense.

If that isn’t enough to convince you, according to a report by Recruitment Solutions, the cost of losing an employee in the first year of employment is estimated to be at least 3 times their annual salary.

Don’t believe me?  Then try out this online turnover calculator and find out for yourself.

Translate that factor into financial loss and you will soon see that investing in training and development isn’t actually that costly to your organisation after all!

Career Progression

Don’t focus purely on the training and development needs of the newbies in the organisation.

The long-term employees need development also and this is imperative to not leave them behind, stuck in a work plateau looking for a way out of the Company.

If your review structure is well thought out, you can capture the training needs of the existing employees and what developmental needs they require or are seeking and help aid them in job satisfaction.

The cost of losing an employee in the first year of employment is estimated to be at least 3 times their annual salary

So training and developing employees on a continued basis from new hire right the way through until they exit the organisation is very beneficial to all parties and using methods such as evaluations, appraisal tools such as 360 degree process and succession planning can make all the difference to how easy training and developing is to implement.

Organisations should develop a training and development strategy which is easily accessible (not a problem with todays advanced technology systems) that includes a range of individual, group, compulsory and voluntary programs.

Investing in the time and costs for good quality training and development of staff is what usually scares employers, but fostering an organisational learning culture far outweighs that issue in the long term with reduced turnover, a much happier and skilled workforce and increased productivity.

Ultimately, our employees are always our greatest asset and in this increasingly competitive global marketplace, administering a quality training and development strategy will guarantee excellent measurable results and increase long-term loyalty from employees.

If that isn’t a sign of a successful business… then I’m not sure what is.

Robyn.