Whenever a new member of staff joins a company, the first few weeks are, more often than not, packed full of induction training. This is, quite obviously, to familiarise new starters with company processes and ease them into their new roles. However, with some employers, employee training ceases after this initial easing in period and is never revisited. This failure to continue training staff can result in poor performance, unreliability and, eventually, employee departures.
Staff training is something that should never stop. Employers that invest into Human Capital Management and carry on staff training throughout their employee’s careers will undoubtedly notice the benefits of employees continued learning and growth. In this article, we’ll look at five reasons why employee training should continue throughout an employee’s employment within a business. Let’s get started.
1) Improving Job Satisfaction
It is safe to say, no one knows everything. Staff that feel as if they are continually learning new skills are much more likely to stick with a company that they feel values their professional growth than a company who doesn’t. Job satisfaction plays a big part in the productivity of members of staff. It goes without saying that happier employees are more likely to do better than unhappy ones.
2) Enhancing or Gaining New Skills
A statistic shared by ClearCompany, revealed how ‘40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year.’ This shouldn’t really be news to anyone as it would seem fairly obvious that staff who are not continually trained in new procedures and techniques will eventually feel as if they are stagnating and begin to look for a new challenge. It also benefits their employer, as it means employees are able to perform an increased number of functions within their role.
3) Increasing Productivity
An employee’s work productivity is possibly the most important reason why staff training should be a continuous process. In order to keep staff productive, it is essential that they are constantly learning new skills that they can apply to their day-to-day functions. Productivity is also essential when employers are faced with an increased workload. If a member of staff struggles with a minimal amount of work it could mean they do not possess the skills required to keep up with their workload. Employers who track productivity through HCM software, such as SuccessFactors or Workday, say they see much higher rate of productivity with continuous and ongoing training, compared to sporadic or one-off training sessions.
4) Enabling Promotion Opportunity
Training employees in new skills and techniques also enables employers to promote staff internally, without the need to bring in recruiters or send out job ads. If your staff are always being trained to be able to do new things, they’re much more likely to succeed in a new role within the company given their knowledge and experience of working within it. Hiring “outsiders” can often mean having to train them in the ways the company operates, whereas, if you’re hiring internally, that training has already been done and the employee has already been trained to do their new role.
5) Employee Loyalty
As previously mentioned, employees that feel as if their bosses care about their career progression are much more likely to stick with that company than look elsewhere. No one wants to feel as if they’ve reached the ceiling within their role, but with continuous staff training, employees are much more likely to be satisfied with their job if they are challenged appropriately. It is easy to ignore staff training and take on the assumption that induction training should be enough, but, without a continuous improvement plan for their staff, employers run the risk of their employees becoming frustrated with their lack of progression, which can lead to them looking elsewhere.