One thing that almost every employer is looking for is a team of employees who are well skilled, adaptable, knowledgeable and smart. Employee skill development should continue far beyond initial HR training when an employee first begins, and instead be something that extends for the full time an employee is with the company. For some employers, skill development training is a delicate balancing act between ensuring that employees have enough training in order to successfully do their job and avoiding any unnecessary financial cost. However, as an employer, making sure that you keep on top of ongoing employee training and skill development can yield a number of benefits not just for your company but for individual employees as well.
Why Continue Training?
Many employers do not continue employee training after the first few weeks at work when it’s important for the employee to understand the basics of their new job. However a study by the HR Council shows that it’s important for employee training to extend a lot further than the first week on the job. One of the biggest benefits of having a development training program in your company is that is sets a precedent for your company, and can help to improve employee retention rates as it provides employees with a chance to improve and develop their existing skills, a major desire of many workforces today.
More Internal Hiring
Most employers will tell you that they prefer to hire from within. Hiring from within means that you have an employee filling the vacancy who is already familiar with the company, knows some or all of the people who they are working with, and will require very little training when they start the new job as compared to hiring somebody who has never worked for the company before. Focusing on employee skill development means that you will have a workforce with a wide set of skills, making it easier to hire from within as more of your staff will already have the necessary training and skill set required to do the job. For example, allowing staff to complete a CCNA Voice Training Course with Comm Support Networks will give them the necessary skill and knowledge to apply for a network engineer job within the company.
Employee Productivity
Employees who do the same job day in, day out without any opportunity to learn more, improve and develop their skills are a lot more likely to become bored and less productive than employees who are encouraged to develop. Many employees are looking for an opportunity to earn a promotion or a pay rise and providing skill development training is one way of encouraging them to reach their career goals. Employees who have a personal career goal to work towards will often be more committed to their work and more productive than those who do not.
Do you provide skill development training for your employees? How has it benefitted them, and your company? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
The investment in training that a company makes shows employees that they are valued. The training creates a supportive workplace. Employees who feel appreciated and challenged through training opportunities may feel more satisfaction toward their jobs.