The importance of training employees

The value of continuing to upskill your employees can’t be overstated. While it’s good business practice to hire workers who are already highly qualified, there’s always room for improvement.
As Indeed explains, given the rapid rate at which jobs and industries evolve in our digital age, ongoing education is more important than ever. Whether you’re a leader in human resources, learning and development, organisational development or any other managerial capacity, you’ll want to implement continuous learning and training for your employees.

The benefits of training employees

Although training employees seems like an unnecessary expense, the return on investment is undoubtedly worth the cost of training. While the benefits of training and development for employees are almost countless, we’ll have a look at four primary advantages of providing coaching sessions and educational programs for your workers.

1) Improved performance

It should go without saying that by improving your employees’ current skill set, they’ll be able to improve their performance in their present roles. The job description of almost every job is changing at unprecedented speeds, and employees need to be able to keep up with the requirements of their job. With additional skills and knowledge that are relevant to their particular job, they’ll be able to increase their productivity as well as the quality of the work they produce.

2) Preparation for future roles

In addition to equipping employees with further expertise for the roles in which they’re currently working, employee training allows employers to prepare workers for the future roles and responsibilities they might take on in an organisation.

For example, if an employee will be moving into a management role, it would be prudent to give them leadership training. By preparing them for career advancement, leaders can avoid the time, costs and energy they might spend on hiring new, more qualified employees or outsourcing the required talent.

Giving your employees a chance to upskill has many benefits

3) Boosted employee morale

According to UX designer Swathi Ravichandran, workers (particularly millennials and Gen Z) often cite the possibility of career growth as one of the key considerations when choosing whether to stay in an organisation. Employee training is regarded by employees as an investment in them. When employees are offered the opportunity to improve their skill set, they report feeling valued by their employers. By boosting employee morale in this way, you can help improve your organisation’s retention rates and reduce employee turnover rates.

4) Enhanced team-wide consistency

One of the most frustrating challenges team managers face is inconsistency in the way in which their team members work and communicate with each other, as well as discrepancies in their various employees’ productivity.

As noted by Chron, when team members aren’t all “on the same page,” the team risks miscommunication and delays which can decrease the team’s quality of work and its overall efficiency and effectiveness. Evolving workplace strategies can also throw a proverbial spanner in a team’s work. Once every team member knows what they have to do, as well as when and how to do it, you’ll have to spend little to no precious time correcting mistakes or smoothing out communication issues. Consequently, you’re guaranteed that your team will work more effectively as an overall unit.

At ICML, we strive to help make your employees happier and more productive through our tailored workplace learning solutions. Download our program guide to explore our employee training programs or contact us to discuss which courses will be best suited to you and your team.