Employee Training – How Appropriate and Up-To-Date Training Can Drive Employee Engagement

In one of our previous blogs, we talked about the top five trends and themes to open questions in employee engagement surveys.

Here, we’d like to look at one of those popular themes – training and how ensuring your staff get the training they need to carry out their duties will drive employee engagement and increase performance and productivity.

Investing in training programs will assist your staff to develop both personally and professionally.

Change affects training and development needs

There is no doubt that the rate at which change occurs in any organisation will have an influence on workplace learning. If change is happening rapidly, then there is a greater need to develop new skills or enhance those already held by your workers.  Change also highlights the importance of training and education as a means of furnishing your workforce with the necessary tools needed to adapt to evolving skill requirements, organisational change and the increasing difficulties in the outside working environment.

There are many elements that affect working and learning. The following indicate just how important it is to invest in training and development of your existing workforce.

Competition For Skilled Staff – as the baby boomer generation give up work, the struggle to find and employ the best skilled workers will increase.

Attracting And Retaining Employees – this is also becoming more of a challenge to businesses. To make sure your organisation is a desirable place to work, it’s is essential that opportunities for learning are provided.  It is imperative as the job market picks up, that organisations are well placed to keep their ‘talent’.

The Necessity For Added Skills – as an organisation grows and develops, it is fair to say that its workforce will need to adapt and build on their skills to meet changes. So, without additional training and refresher courses, your staff may not be able to ‘keep up’ or indeed carry out their responsibilities fully.

Concerns Around The Cost Of Providing Training – there is always concern surrounding the funding of supporting and providing training and development. The requirement to use resources in the provision of training may be on the increase, but may not be readily available. In times of financial uncertainty, budgets for training and development are often cut or eliminated altogether.

Restricted Opportunities For Advancement – many organisations have a flat organisational structure. This gives very little room for career advancement. Embracing the idea that ‘moving up’ is not the only way to acquire job satisfaction could be a solution.  Alternatively, employers should look to generate challenges for their staff in their current position or similar roles, secondments and job shadowing opportunities.

By providing your employees the chance to learn, train and develop, they will be better prepared to help their organisation meet its goals and objectives.  They will become more productive and their performance levels will increase. Staff will become more motivated, more empowered and require less supervision. As a contingency, you will end up with a pool of employees equipped to replace others who may leave.

Employees engaged in continuous training programs will have the ability to rise up to the challenges of the changes an organisation is going through. They will have the ability and skills to manage and work on new projects. Employees will be increasingly more engaged in the work they do and finally, your organisation will be more successful in attracting and retaining employees.

If you would like to know more about employee engagement surveys, then please contact us on +44 (0) 1255 850051.