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Learning & Development

12 benefits of employee training & development

Leapsome Team
12 benefits of employee training & development
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Employee training and development are central to people enablement and any successful, long-term business strategy —  supporting team growth and boosting engagement.

Prioritizing development has many advantages that can build your organization’s resilience and help you remain competitive.

This article explores twelve proven benefits your company can expect when investing in employee training. We’ll also discuss why professionals are interested in jobs that offer enriching development opportunities. 

The importance of employee training

Employee training is critical to business success. Helping your people develop the specific knowledge and skills they need to excel in their roles means you’re equipping them to perform at their best. This has a cumulative effect on every aspect of your organization, from customer satisfaction to company culture to profitability. 

And even more importantly, training enriches the employee experience. 84% of companies say fostering a learning culture creates a positive work environment that helps to motivate and engage their people. Employees value it so highly that 21% of them would leave a company to pursue development opportunities elsewhere. That’s why learning and development should be an integral part of your strategy when investing in people enablement.

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12 employee training benefits for businesses

When you prioritize employee development, it can have impactful and far-reaching effects. Here are the main benefits organizations can enjoy:

An infographic that showcases the twelve benefits of employee training.

1. Boost performance & productivity

Training enables employees to work more efficiently. What that looks like varies between roles and industries. A software developer might learn how to fix bugs faster after taking a skills-based training course, while a salesperson may develop techniques to take their customer service up a notch.

And when team members work more efficiently, organizational performance improves, too. Studies show companies that invest in training are 59% more likely to grow and 27% more likely to be cost-efficient. 

“Training has created opportunities for cross-department collaboration and teamwork, improving our overall team dynamic. For example, after our customer service team received sales training, we saw a 20% increase in closed deals, resulting in significant revenue growth.”

— Shri Ganeshram, founder and CEO at Awning

2. Reduce the need for supervision

As you train employees, they become more independent. That means how they prefer to receive guidance may change. For instance, instead of wanting a manager to be available for questions while they do a certain task, they might just ask them to double-check their work once it’s finished. And when people don’t require as much supervision, it can benefit the entire team:

  • Managers can invest more time in training initiatives to level up the team’s skill set.
  • People may work more efficiently as they don’t have to wait to get their questions answered or contact someone to assist them as often.
  • All team members will have more capacity to assist each other when needed.
  • Fewer demands on department leads’ time enable them to offer employees more in-depth guidance. 

Plus, a recent study showed that professionals want more autonomy. Providing team members with relevant, valuable training and development opportunities allows them to work more independently and build self-confidence, thus increasing their job satisfaction.

3. Create more opportunities for internal promotion

Career development and advancement run parallel to each other. A big part of defining career goals or identifying promotion opportunities is for managers and reports to decide what learning and development initiatives they should prioritize next. 

Overall, investing in staff training can refine how your organization approaches employee promotion management. Giving people more chances to pursue learning and development can expedite the promotion process, as they’ll build the skills and knowledge they need more quickly. And if you establish a learning program within your organization, you’ll have a clearer overview of your team’s progress and who may be eligible for upcoming positions.

4. Enrich communication

Employee training is an excellent opportunity to boost transparency and communication. Training programs can give staff a deeper understanding of their roles by defining expectations and showing what high-quality performance looks like.

And when you cross-train teams, you help develop an understanding between colleagues. Gaining deeper insights into other departments’ work processes and challenges is especially beneficial for interrelated teams that often exchange feedback. An example would be sales and product teams constantly discussing factors like how much output is feasible and what new features customers want.

If you have a performance management system in place, combined with training analytics, it can help explain company processes and the reasoning behind big decisions to your team. For instance, you can use learning progress and development feedback to clarify why reports have a specific pay band during salary reviews

5. Increase alignment with company goals 

Investing in employee development can clarify and strengthen your organization’s mission and values. If you offer regular training opportunities, team members will know you walk the walk in prioritizing knowledge sharing and professional development. They’ll also see that you value your people as you’re demonstrating a willingness to invest in their growth.

Training can also clarify your company’s direction. Let’s say you announce that one of your objectives and key results (OKRs) is reducing client turnover by 10% in 2023; you could reinforce that message by enrolling your sales team in a customer satisfaction training program.

6. Encourage agility

72% of employers think regular training makes for more dynamic organizations. That’s because people find it easier to adapt to change when they have a robust skill set.

Such resilience is invaluable during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Reshuffle. For instance, when most companies suddenly went remote in 2020, employees with prior knowledge of collaboration tools like Zoom and Trello found the transition easier. And teams with diverse skill sets adjusted faster to internal shifts as their colleagues resigned.

Training can also help businesses adapt to the tight labor market. Developing employees to fill open positions reduces the risk of essential roles staying empty. That means spending less time on recruitment and rewarding top performers who want to advance within your company. Tellingly, 51% of HR managers say they’re upskilling to fill skills gaps rather than competing for talent.

Photo of a professional working from home with kids in the background.

Comprehensive employee training and development helps prepare teams for abrupt changes like going remote

7. Make company processes more efficient

Training helps staff work more accurately and thoroughly. That means they make fewer errors that require time to fix and are more likely to find ways to streamline current processes. This shows again how investing in learning and development can positively impact internal business operations.

Also, teaching employees relevant knowledge and skills is crucial for tasks that rely on teamwork. If you haven’t given your people adequate training, they won’t be able to collaborate to the best of their ability, which could hinder the entire team’s workflow. Make sure your employees are deeply familiar with your company goals, current projects, and products or services to improve communication and cooperation throughout the whole organization.

8. Attract top talent

80% of job seekers say they consider a company’s employee development when applying for a job. In the end, offering more training programs than your competitors may be the thing that wins candidates over.

Employee training also facilitates the onboarding process. Gallup recently found that new hires are 2.6x more likely to be satisfied with their jobs if their initial training is exceptional. So, learning and development not only attracts the right people, but also helps you retain new key team members.

9. Improve customer satisfaction

Training initiatives boosting staff work performance may result in better customer service. This is especially the case in sales or other client-facing roles, where learning programs can directly improve response time and value. Of course, delivering a higher quality product or service also generates higher ratings and reviews and more repeat customers. 

When employees add new skills to their repertoire, you can further impress clients by expanding your range of services. For instance, a law firm could train its staff in social work to better serve vulnerable clients.

10. Strengthen your company brand

Although you should prioritize empowering your people with training over boosting your brand reputation, the two often go hand in hand. Having well-trained, competent employees on your team can contribute to your organization’s positive public image. You can even use your training programs or team members’ credentials as a testament to the quality of your products or services. Private schools like Monterossi and Waldorf, for example, frequently give their teachers’ qualifications top billing on their websites.

11. Spur innovation

Workplace training may encourage employees to be more inventive. And some of the most innovative businesses on the global market prioritize a rich learning environment above all else. Pixar’s co-founder Ed Catmull says his team’s revolutionary animation techniques are due to the company’s extensive corporate training. Staff can pick and choose what they want to learn from a library of courses on various technical skills like screenplay writing and drawing. 

So, if you combine different perspectives and skill sets in your training, you may notice people putting their creativity on display in their work.

12. Raise retention rates

Staff training can help reduce your company’s turnover rates. A recent SHRM study showed 76% of workers are more likely to stay with an organization that offers professional development. That’s because training has many benefits for employees, which we’ll explore below.

Benefits of professional development & training for individuals

Photo of a one-on-one office training session between two professionals.

Investing in training directly benefits employees and shows the organization values their growth

Employees should be at the center of all training decisions. It’s essential to understand how learning and development can benefit your people so you can fulfill their needs. Here’s a list of the main advantages.

1. Fewer roadblocks to career advancement

One of the biggest reasons professionals want training is to move up in their organization. But if their daily job responsibilities don’t provide sufficient development opportunities, it’s difficult for them to learn the skills they need to progress. To employees, a lack of training opportunities might indicate that your company doesn’t value development efforts or prioritize internal growth.

2. Increased motivation & engagement

Leapsome discovered 54% of staff need to develop new skills to feel engaged with their work — and a number of scientific studies link learning with happiness. Ergo, offering more training opportunities could boost employee motivation and engagement levels at your organization. 

But offering training isn’t enough — ensure you satisfy people’s specific training needs, too. Conduct employee engagement surveys to measure the impact of your current development programs and uncover what other learning opportunities staff need to feel more connected with their work. Several popular employee engagement models can provide you with frameworks to get started.

3. Extra job security

Training and development build staff skills and expertise. This helps employees fill skills gaps and makes them more indispensable to your organization.

Offering comprehensive employee training also makes team members more agile. That way, instead of companies having to let people go as they contend with budget cuts, they might be able to retrain or reassign them to new roles. This is especially relevant to modern workers as the skills needed for positions changed by 25% in the past seven years and will continue to evolve.

4. A more even playing field

Employees come from a variety of backgrounds and have different demands on their time and money. For example, staff from underrepresented groups may have less access to resources than their peers. And some team members may have free evenings and weekends to study independently, whereas others might have full family care schedules or other personal responsibilities. Situations like these can create an unfair competitive advantage between colleagues.

Offering a range of employee training programs can make your workplace more equitable. Staff can access the professional development resources they need during working hours without having to spend money on their professional growth. They’ll also feel more positive about their co-workers getting pay raises and promotions when they know they have equal opportunities to achieve them.

Develop your people with Leapsome

Robust employee training can have a powerful impact on your organization. It boosts business performance, bolsters company culture, and allows individuals to thrive. That’s why training is such a critical aspect of people enablement.

Platforms like Leapsome can help you build a learning culture within your organization. Our Learning module has all the tools you need to manage development programs and create custom training courses to suit specific employee needs. You can upload multimedia materials from internal and external sources to cater to every learning style. And you can manage your training workshops easily by automatically assigning courses to team members and getting a clear overview of their progress. 

Best of all, our tools fit into your current business model, so you can revolutionize your learning and development program without overhauling your internal processes.

🌱 Foster a learning culture in your company

Leapsome lets you create training courses tailored to your unique business needs.

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Leapsome Team

Written by the team at Leapsome — the all-in-one people enablement platform for driving employee engagement, performance, and learning.
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