The Importance of Employee Training

When you think of employee training, you're probably considering the cost in onboarding a newly hired employee. You might be considering the expense in training existing employees to learn new software or technologies. And you likely know that training is an essential expenditure in reaping the best rewards from your staff. What you might not know is that training plays an integral role in staff retention. In fact, 70% of workers say that training and development have a direct impact on their loyalty to the company. Employees who aren't being challenge or don't feel that they're being trained and developed in an advantageous way will be less satisfied with their position and more inclined to look for other employment opportunities. 

With this information in mind, employee training should be a top priority for your company, from the highest level of management down. There are really two issues at hand with regard to training and development - lack of training causes mistakes and it also leads to dissatisfied staff.

Employee Mistakes Can Be Costly

It's well known that employee negligence causes a high percentage of the security risks that companies have to contend with in today's cyber age. Training isn't just a one-time initiative to onboard new employees to your company culture. It needs to be regularly revisited to maintain optimal security protocols. It also needs to be updated with every change in technology. In many cases, employees without their knowledge initiate data breaches. These can often be small mistakes, like leaving their database open with no password protection or downloading software without authorization. Though these mistakes aren't malicious in nature, companies need to take steps to make certain all employees are better trained to negate these risks.

Each individual employee works at their own pace and learns in their own way. You might have a good number of employees who pick up new directions without much hands-on training. But you'll also have some who learn better by trial and error and some who learn better by one-on-one training. Training tactics should be devised to guard against costly mistakes without damaging employee morale. This might include a check system, so that supervisors are accountable for their employee's actions on scheduled intervals. You may also find dividing staff into teams proves beneficial for all members to better meet productivity goals and understand protocols.

Employee Retention is Key to Success

Employee retention is no small thing. There will be a productivity lag with new employees while they learn your corporate policies and start to grasp procedures. A high turnover in employees can also negatively impact corporate culture. When employees see their peers leaving for "greener pastures" it makes them less optimistic about their own position in the company. Employee training and development is high on the list of qualities that employees look for when assessing their overall professional satisfaction. Building a culture where employees are given opportunities to add to their professional skills and development also adds value to their contributions to your team.

Adding and expanding training initiatives can be time consuming and costly. Most companies put these initiatives to the side because they're not seeing the ROI in the theory of training, but they immediately see the lapse in productivity when time is taken away from daily responsibilities. In the long run, though, a better-trained employee means a more productive environment and higher employee retention.

Need help with your Domino environment?