TRAINING, RETAINING & EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Before employees can be all-stars at your business, they need to be trained.
Even if an employee meets or exceeds the required qualifications, there might be other skills that they need for the job.
After spending time and money scouring for the best talent, you might not want to hear that this but the fact remains that training both the new and not-so-new employees is critical.
Conducting a periodic ‘Training Needs Analysis’ and using periodic performance reviews to identify training needs early on are some of the best ways to identify and consolidate training requirements.
Improper onboarding and the lack of subsequent training can lead to poor results or eventual employee turnover, which means repeating the whole process from scratch.
One study found that 43.98% of employee turnovers take place within six months of starting at a business.
This brings us to an important question :
IS THE COST OF TRAINING EMPLOYEES WORTH IT ?
Some business owners see the initial costs of training employees and panic.
But, successfully training employees can end up saving money in the long-run.
It certainly costs more to replace staff than to develop them.
According to the Get Abstract online blog, the cost of losing a current employee is more than developing a new one.
Too often, employees who feel that their employer is not investing in their professional development simply move on and look to pursue better opportunities which increases staff turnover.
Not only can successful training lead to more revenue for a business, it can also improve employee retention.
Not convinced yet ?
Depending who you talk to the total employee turnover costs of replacing an employee varies from 30-150% of their salary.
It is amply clear that losing a salaried employee can cost a company as much as twice their annual salary, especially for a high-earner or executive-level employee.
A conservative study revealed that the average business will spend an average of 21.4% of an employee’s salary on finding a replacement.
So, if an employee earning $40,000 leaves, a company will spend a total of $8,560 to replace them (recruiting, hiring and onboarding).
This cycle can be broken by taking the time to diligently train employees.
The training search engine, findcourses.com describes how employee development is extremely important to employees and their engagement levels.
Worryingly though, too many do not feel that development is important to their managers.
On the other hand, most managers have understandable concerns about time constraints.
So, the common and oft unspoken question that needs to be addressed is :
WHERE IS THE TIME ?
No doubt, time is money and like money, it should be seen as an investment and not a wasteful expense.
The time spent training a new employee is a fraction of the time lost during the overall turnover and hiring process.
None of this extra time is lost by simply investing in developing a current employee’s skill sets instead.
Another advantage of investing in the skill set of current employees is that it enables businesses to develop future managers.
Businesses can even avoid the cost of hiring new talent and ensure that new managers will be a great culture fit by training them internally.
This also benefits current managers by giving them assistants to delegate tasks to, while it prepares teams for comparatively smoother transitions when existing managers move on, take time off, or retire.
Finally, as employees gain new skills, they also become potential
trainers themselves.
When one employee learns a new skill set, it becomes easier for them to assist others with on-the-job training.
Investing in one current employee can have a multiplier effect that indirectly helps you train multiple staff without added cost.
Clearly, employers need their employees to be engaged, and a great way to do this is to provide opportunities for professional development.
Research indicates that employee engagement is linked to ‘strong relationships within the workplace, interest in employee happiness, and a strong emphasis on employee development.’
An engaged workforce leads to higher productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction ratings.
That should sound like music to the ears of any business owner.
