“An investment of knowledge always pays the best interest”- Benjamin Franklin

Businesses believe that employees are essential assets for their companies as the employees’ quality may influence the products’ quality. It encourages them to undergo several strategies such as conducting skill training and development for the employees. As it is said by Benjamin Franklin above which implies that employees who attend skill training will have the opportunity to perform better in their job. Therefore, by investing in employee training, the companies expect to achieve a better rate of outcome and revenue.

Besides, the World Economy Forum predicts that reskilling will be needed by half of all employees around the world by 2025. It is because the development of technology has transformed jobs. Hence, to succeed in future business, most companies around the world invest in employee training and development due to the need for upskilling and reskilling.

Citing the definition from the Association of Talent Development, employee training and development means the activities to facilitate employees in acquiring new or improving existing knowledge, skills, and attitude to prepare them for future directions and responsibilities. The goal is to enable the companies to remain competitive.

The focus of this article will be on upskilling and reskilling training and development. Upskilling means giving a chance to learn a new set of knowledge and skills to make them perform better in their current job, and adapt to changing market conditions and other future challenge. While reskilling is facilitating employees to acquire entirely new skills and knowledge to prepare them to move to different job areas.

Benefits of Employees Training and Development

Specifically, investing in employees’ training and development has some benefits for both the companies and the employees themselves. Here is the discussion.

Revenue and productivity enhancement

There is a mind-blowing finding by the Association of Talent Development that a company with an effective training program has 218% higher revenue and 24% higher profit margin than a company without a formalized training program. It is strengthened by a result of the study which is conveyed by Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State Manpower and Education of Singapore, cited from The Straits Times, “when enterprises actively support and invest in the upskilling of employees, they can better attract and retain talent, as well as increase their revenue”.

Those findings indicate that advancing employees’ skills and knowledge through training and development programs will have a good impact on their productivity enhancement. Then, the productivity enhancement will drive the company to have higher revenue and profit margin. Hence, continuing the training and development investment will keep increasing productivity and revenue as well.

Employees retention

Long-term research on professional development at work by Middlesex University’s Work Based Learning shows an interesting finding that 70% out of more than 4000 strong samples state that they did not feel to meet their full potential because of a lack of training. To add to this, research conducted by G2HR found that 40% of employees who do not receive appropriate training which is appropriate to their job will leave the companies within their first year. Besides, recent research that involved 400 employees with three generation spans (baby boomers, generation X, and millennials) found that 70% of them considered the existence of related training facilities from the companies to decide to stay or go.

Those findings indicate that professional employees training and development are needed to retain the employees. It is considered essential because retaining employees with good quality is important for the company’s growth. Another benefit of this is saving time and expenditure for new employee recruitment.

Employees’ happiness and engagement 

Positive psychology said that facilitating your employees to upgrade their workforce skills through training and development is a good way to increase their engagement and happiness. They feel the company appreciates them as valuable assets and cares about their skill for staying competitive in the future. Happy employees will positively impact their motivation in doing the best for the company’s productivity.

Technology updated to stay competitive

Nine out of ten employees surveyed in Singapore stated that they are more interested to work in a company with training and development on technology. A finding from research conducted by UiPath, 82% of respondents are keen on employers who commit to upgrading their technology skills as it will improve the whole aspects of the company. Technology, indeed, has changed everything including enabling products and services to be accessible by everyone with only one click or touch. The technology skill upgrade will make the company remain competitive with other competitors as well. 

Based on the discussion above, employees’ training is not an expense but an investment. It is profitable for both employees and employers. Besides, it also has the potential to increase global GDP by up to $6,5 trillion, provide new jobs, and help to realize an economic world that is more inclusive and sustainable.

However, it is more recommended to undertake the employees’ training and development by leveraging LMS in online or blended learning methods. The use of LMS will give more flexibility to all employees in deciding the best time and place to learn. It facilitates them to learn based on their own pace as well. All data starting from employees who join the program up to their learning progress report are recorded well by the LMS. Hence, the LMS will support employee training and development programs to be more effective.

However, make sure that the LMS you choose does not bother you with IT problems or capacity. Always choose an LMS from a qualified provider such as Katalis.App. It is running on top of Open edX as the engine and has been used by more than 35 million users around the world. 

Overall, the benefits of investing in employee training are addressed to not only the company but also the employees. The use of LMS will simplify the training process. Therefore, the employees will be involved optimally in the training.