Why Investing in Employee Training is a Smart Business Move: Boosting Productivity and Retention Through Professional Development

The very crucial aspect of employee management is employee training. It’s basically training new or current employees on the skills, knowledge, and behaviour required to perform their job role efficiently.

This improves team spirit & mental health of the employee which in turn results in performance & productivity which leads to a more successful & profitable business.

Importance of Training and Development

Let’s understand why it’s beneficial for investing in employee training.

Boosting Productivity & Improving Performance

When employees have the opportunity to upgrade their skills and grow in their respective roles, it serves as motivation which leads to improved performance and productivity.

Increased Retention Due to Employee Training

Employee retention and the hiring process is a huge hurdles (and expenses) for employers. Employees will stay with organisations if they feel that there is ample opportunity for learning and growth. Having a solid employee development program turns the retention rate higher and turnover rates lower, which can save organisation time and resources that usually are spent on the recruitment of new employees.

Gain a Good Company Reputation

Employer who cares enough to provide training is seen as a good employer which automatically boosts your reputation. This is a great opportunity for attracting good new employees, retention of current employees as well as how customers/stakeholders see you. Once the word gets out about this in the market, sales, and hiring is affected in a positive way.

Gain a Good Company Reputation

Hiring upper-level employees from within the organisation is a good idea. They are more familiar with the daily business and stakeholders. But not all employees are ready for the change in positions. Hence, promoting such employees when they aren’t ready leads to issues.

A proper training program will create a pool of capable employees who are ready for promotion. Also, help identify strength and weakness which is essential for identifying the needs of the employees as well as training program.

Finally, all these create employees who are ready for promotion. Employee training reflects on current employees’ possibility for future promotion as well as shows you which employees have the aptitude for such a promotion.

Employee Training Raises Employee Engagement

The consistent engagement via training & development of employees can diminish boredom in the workplace, which left unchecked can create feelings of dissatisfaction and negative working habits. Regular training initiatives can prevent workplace boredom and in turn will help organisation establish regular re-evaluation of their employees, skills, and processes.

Improve Workplace Relationship

The training programs that focus on exploring new topics, building skills, and expanding knowledge can help team bonding. These training and development sessions help them tackle new challenges and also lean on one another for various learning opportunities. Collaborating with a peer who has specific areas of expertise is actually quite helpful in improving retention and engagement.

Improved Mental Health Due to Employee Training

When training programs focus on the overall development of the client, they feel that they are learning and growing professionally & personally. This increases their self-esteem and overall job satisfaction which results in improved mental health. This creates a positive work environment which again improves performance, productivity & better retention with better mental health.

Strategies for Better Retaintion & Employee Training

Here are a few strategies that one can keep in mind for better retention and training employee effectively.

• The first step is to Understand and identify the needs of your organisation. This will help in customising training programs according to the skills & knowledge required by the employees to succeed in their respective roles.
• Once you understand the needs of the organisation, you can start working on developing a plan on how & when to deliver the training. The focus should be on the content, how it will be delivered and the time frame for completing the training.
• It’s crucial to use a variety of styles & training methods to ensure all can learn effectively. Example Includes personal training and online courses.
• Make training a priority by allocating sufficient resources. This reflects that company values employee development and is committed to helping them achieve their goals too.
• Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of training to make sure that intended goals are met.

Including Mental Health in Your Employee Engagement & Training & Strategy

“Workplaces that promote mental health and support people with mental disorders are more likely to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and benefit from associated economic gains.” – World Health Organisation

Thus, it should come as no surprise that many organisations are devising strategies that can be included in development programs to keep the mental health of their employees in check. Here are a few employee engagement strategies to better manage mental health in India.

• Conduct surveys and polls to assess the psychological condition which will help evaluate stressors
• Normalize conversation regarding mental health to reduce stigma
• Connect them with mental health professionals where they can discuss their personal issues confidentially
• Conduct team build activities that throw light on mental health

Lastly, Employee development is an ongoing process, which means that one will look forward to future planning. One can ask following questions to reflect on needs of company success.

1. What kind of leaders does my company need?
2. What will the stakeholders require from my employees and company?
3. What market change I should expect?

Since employees are most important part to any reflections you come up for these questions, their training and development are tightly involved too. This will force you to think ahead as the training program that work last year might not work next year. The business culture keeps changing as per customer & industry needs. An employee training program that forces you to reflect on future aspects is the one that’s going to work best for the success of your business. That’s a good thing as staying on your toes as far as relevant employee wellbeing and development is concerned means you'll be thinking ahead of the curve for your business.