Training employees makes business sense

A comprehensive training module becomes an effective tool to up-skill, and also multi-skill, your employees.

A recent study conducted by Bersin by Deloitte, a leading provider of human resource research and advisory services, revealed that more than 70 per cent of organisations cite "capability gaps" as one of their top five challenges. Extensive employee training has been suggested as the most effective way to close the skill gaps by a majority of corporates the world over.
In fact, research shows that companies which fall into the high-impact category spend significantly more on employee training than others. It is a well-accepted fact that an increased investment in training is beneficial for all stakeholders - employees, businesses and job seekers.
Upgrading employee skills makes profound business sense. Though there is bound to be a time lag between the commencement of training and the manifestation of benefits, the long-term gains associated with employee training are well worth the investment. Training and developing your employees could be critical to the future success of your organisation.
Take a look at the some of the reasons why you need to invest in employee training:
Succession planning
A comprehensive and ongoing employee training and development programme supports succession planning by increasing the availability of experienced and capable employees to assume senior roles. When you deepen your talent pool, you automatically reduce the inherent risk of "irreplaceable" employees leaving your company.
Increasing employee value
A comprehensive training module becomes an effective tool to up-skill, and also multi-skill, your employees. Up-skilling results in extending an employee's knowledge of an existing skill, while multi-skilling refers to the process of training employees in new or related work areas to increase their usability within the organisation. Your company automatically gets more experts in a particular department without you having to hire experts and pay them huge salaries. You are creating your own experts with the kind of expertise you need for your organisation. Besides, employees with diverse skill sets can fit into different roles and move laterally within the company.
Enabling employee retention
When you invest in training your employees, you actually reduce costs attributed to new hiring. Training is a retention tool, instilling loyalty and commitment in employees. Oftentimes, people leave not just because they are looking for a fatter pay cheque, but also because they are looking for new challenges. Your employees are much more likely to stick to your company if you offer ways for them to learn and grow within. Well-planned training can provide career pathways for employees within the organisation, thus reducing the chances of them seeking next-level opportunities elsewhere.
Enhance operational efficiency
Training your employees can increase their efficiency and productivity and help your organisation achieve greater consistency in process adherence, making it easier to predict outcomes and meet organisational goals. You can cross-train employees to be capable in more than one aspect of the business. This will keep them interested as they face new challenges within the same organisation. It also enables you to tide over scheduled leaves and absences of employees.
Boosting employee morale
Effective training is a morale booster and keeps employees charged up about their work, organisation, team and so forth. These benefits may not be easy to calculate as they are not tangible, but they show up in the long run in terms of customer loyalty, repeat orders, employee preference, etc. Well-trained and cultured employees become ambassadors of the organisation. They contribute to the reputation of the company, and a good reputation results in a boost to the top and bottom line growth.
Scoring over competition
Training your employees in industry standard best practices can give you an edge over your competitors. Well-trained employees project a certain culture; they invoke trust and ooze efficiency. This organisational culture can give you a formidable reputation. It's all about perceptions. Many businesses operate in saturated markets and it is the little things that set them apart.
Improving day-to-day functioning
Above all, a well-trained person is a joy to work with. Team work improves tremendously if employees are trained and their efficiencies are enhanced. They create new possibilities and are open to challenges and ideas. Teams that have kinship perform better, as there is less bickering and petty jealousies and envy. Even difficult conversations become easy to conduct.
In the end, skilled and efficient employees are a big asset to a company. They are organised and set clear expectations, follow the right approach to deal with challenges, encourage personal development and make decisions that save time and money. Managers rising from such ranks have a significant impact on customer and employee satisfaction. Efficient managers create satisfied employees, who are more likely to go beyond just satisfying customers as they strive to delight them instead.
Remember, management skills are not inherent; they are acquired through learning and training.
The writer is the CEO of Pinnacle Smart Technologies. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policies.