The context is more challenging than ever. Businesses are constantly being pushed to keep up with technology advancements which evolve at such a fast pace that there’s only one way to keep up with constant change and still thrive: to have talented, skilled and multitasking workforce, capable of look for creative ways to stay competitive and handle organizational changes.
Since the new millennium, each generation has completely different aspirations and it has been challenging for businesses to either find how to attract and retain talent. Perks and pay raises are no longer enough. The new workforce find the idea of benefiting from some perks attractive but they have to feel entirely engaged and aligned with a specific project.
The so called millennials are now past and the most recent generation, often referred to as the generation Z, is really critical, they want to be heard and take part in almost every aspect of the business. Recent statistics show that the great majority – 70% – chose to work in areas that can somehow meet their personal interests. By working on projects that share their personal values, today’s workforce must be capable of progressing not only as professionals but also at a personal level. So why is it so important to train your staff?
Job satisfaction
“Incorporating training that develops employees towards long-term career goals can also promote greater job satisfaction. A more satisfied employee is likely to stay longer and be more productive while on your team.”
The same article recently published in a HR magazine, states that 40% of employees who receive poor training leave their positions within the first year and yes, people actually leave their job when they stop feeling challenged or stop experiencing professional and personal growth which is fairly easy to understand.
We all like to learn and improve our skills as well as to be able to do more and better. For the new generations just starting their first jobs, it is crucial to feel the availability of the organisation to invest in an individual progress. As mentioned above, new generations value, as never before, the capacity to be involved in almost every aspect of the business and to be able to do so with competently, for them to be happy, they need training.
Higher staff retention
You can’t avoid this chaotic, fast-paced business world we live in so you might as well adapt to it. How? By adopting a retention strategy to keep your top talent, the ones who will keep you competitive, who will make you thrive. Instead of hiring new people frequently, and for the sake of avoiding the escalating trend of high turnover rates, it’s increasingly important to invest time, resources and money into your existing employees. If they don’t feel engaged motivated, rewarded, recognised and aligned with the organisation’s projects, they will soon move on – we’re increasingly professional nomads.
To hire and retain talented and skilled workforce, it’s crucial to focus on employees’ well being which is driven mainly by job satisfaction, and training is a major part of it. The idea is: training is one of the best retention tools and retaining your talented staff is one of the main secret ingredients for organizational competitiveness.
Employee engagement
The context asks for the millennials and the Z’s who can multitask and be creative with the solutions that will make you keep up with the constant technology improvements. You can’t afford to lose them but you have to provide the tools and resources for them to grow as professionals, to feel empowered, motivated, and able to respond to any upcoming challenge. And that’s not done with salary increases, offering them a MacBook, or a iPhone. Not anymore. That’s done by providing them the most powerful tool you can get: knowledge. Knowledge to be able to operate successfully across different business areas.
The new generations like to take part in everything, remember? If you cross-train them, if they actually have the ability to successfully manage more than one aspect of your business, you won’t be freaking out each time one is missing and you won’t be needing to recruit each time you start a new project because you’ll have the expertise in-house. Training adds flexibility and efficiency, thus it ultimately saves costs.
Recruiting tool
Among the benefits of providing training consider the fact that you’re not only investing in your existing staff, making them multitaskers, capable of performing well across many different areas, but you’re also becoming attractive for your future employees.
When applying to a specific position, if someone realises that you provide the opportunity to growth and develop within the organisation, that’s a big plus for all the above mentioned reasons.
Whether you see it as a recruitment tool or a retention tool (or both), don’t ignore staff training. Yes, it can be expensive and with no direct line of return, but it costs a lot more to lose talent and to face high turnover. According to ERE Media, employee turnover results in accumulated costs from interviewing, hiring and training new staff costs 30-50% of entry-level employee’s annual salary to replace them; for mid-level employees, it costs at least 150% of their annual salary and for high-level employees, replacing them costs around 400% of their annual salary.
So work on retaining the best. Invest in obtaining the greatest return from your human capital investment and focus on HRD (human resource development) allowing you employees to progress in their careers as they are the main asset of any organisation. Training staff it’s not really a cost but an investment.