Gone are the days when a job was viewed almost like a marriage, with the company promising to protect and provide and the employee pledging to be faithful and loyal. Today it is much less likely for an employee to stay with one company till his/her retirement. Though there are various reasons such as better work-life balance, higher pay and better benefits and perks for an employee to change the job, For many employees career is an opportunity to develop, more than just a way to earn money. An employer can fulfil these employee learning needs and allowing them to grow and assume more responsibilities.
The Gap between The Employee and The Employer Needs
When it comes to workplace expectations, employees and employers are often on different pages. In some cases they’re reading entirely different chapters. Thus, Training Need Analysis is an integral part of an organisation. It enables the organisation and the employee to grow and stay motivated. Employees are better retained when their needs of development and growth are understood, and acted upon. For an employee it is crucial that he is given the space, and time to do various developmental activities within the organisation. For an employer, it is crucial to figure out ways to keep the employees engaged and motivated so that the employee is always improving his skills.
Should Businesses Not Invest in Training?
The belief that businesses shouldn’t invest in training their employees because they’ll just take their newly learned skills and updated résumé to a new company couldn’t be further from the truth. Offering professional development training programs allows employees to perform better and prepares them for positions of greater responsibility. But it can also help employers attract top talents, retain their best workers and identify future leaders. Moreover, professional development is appealing to many employers today who are looking to keep their employee’s skills relevant in a rapidly changing world.
Development Opportunities Lead to 34% High Retention Rate!
Encouraging (or even better, organising for) an employee to learn a new skill or competency will allow your company to broaden or increase the level of expertise and knowledge within your organization, which translates into added value you can offer your existing or prospective customers.
“A survey of 2000 employees by Betterbuy found a 34% high retention rate with development opportunities than those without them. Plus 75% of the employees with developmental opportunities said that they would stay for another five years.”
Could An Instructor-led Training Program be a Hassle?
With Training & Development programs also come the hidden costs of hiring the trainer, arranging logistics, and a designated space, among all. Also, carving time out from the employees already hectic schedules might lead to drop-offs and increase absenteeism. Even more so, the availability of an expert trainer depending on different regions could prove to be a big bottleneck in training programs.
Let’s talk about Mark, a manager who was incharge of business operations in two regions where his company operated. Eventually, he was also responsible for taking care of Training & Development of the employees at both the regions. The employees were very happy with the trainer at one region, but he faced a slight issue with the other region. The trainer was not an expert, but was the only available trainer in the region. Also other trainers did not find it convenient to travel and Mark did not find it to be a viable solution either, looking at the added travel and hiring costs involved.
Could an Online Training Program Provide Better ROI?
Online learning has proven to be a more accessible solution to in-company training and development. It lets the employers encourage their workforce to learn while not actually have to spend on classrooms and teachers. To measure the ROI of your training program one should also consider the cost of employee on-boarding process. Wipro BPS replaced physical training for Spoken English, grammar, voice and accent training with a specially designed Hello English training program of just 13 days to achieve cost saving and reduced on-boarding time.
Hello English helped Wipro save 3 man days of training per resource, with higher on the floor throughput post training.
Employee satisfaction and engagement are critical to building and maintaining a strong performing company, and nothing is more fundamental to generating feelings of satisfaction and engagement than providing your employees opportunities for professional development. All the employers in today’s world should see work-integrated learning as not only an investment in the skills economy of tomorrow, but also an investment in future of their business.