As headlines report of an impending UK skills shortage, we look at why it is so important to set aside a little something in the budget for your own staff development and training.
We know smaller businesses can fear investment in training, the cost can be difficult to justify but in reality, spending a little on training is a business investment that almost always pays off.
So what are the benefits of spending time and money on the development your teams?

 

1   STAFF RETENTION
Employee turnover is a costly inconvenience for all businesses and according to a recent study 40% of poorly trained employees leave their job within 1 year and most cite lack of training as their reason for leaving before walking out the door. Believe it or not, in most cases providing good quality training and developing your employees is less costly than having to replace them.
When your ability to compete on salary is limited then other non-financial benefits will help you to retain great staff. A training and development programme is seen by employees as an amazing benefit. It demonstrates your commitment to investing in them, breeds loyalty and engagement and potentially gives you an edge over your competitors, helping to ensure that your key team members go nowhere.

2   IT HELPS TO ATTRACT GREAT EMPLOYEES
Investing in training helps a business to retain employees but also helps to attract great talent too. A visible training and development programme is very attractive and something to shout about, it can be the reason a potential employee chooses you as an employer over one of your competitors.
Most potential employees are looking for opportunities to develop and a business that invests in developing people, shows commitment to growth and longevity which in turn leads to wider opportunities for its employees.

3   IT HELPS YOU TO PROMOTE FROM WITHIN
According to studies, promoting internally is less risky than recruiting externally, and training your employees to enable future promotions is much easier too. They already have the knowledge or your business and all you need to do is develop their skills. Simple right?
Training and development programmes can at prepare your best employees for their future roles or at worst help you identify those who do not have the potential to lead. Win win!

4   IT CAN HELP TO MAKE YOU FUTURE PROOF
The long term success of any business requires planning and as well as creating your future leaders, investment in training and development can ensure your business and employees keep bang up to date with industry standards making you more attractive to customers. An embedded culture of learning can also help make that inevitable change to the technology, a much easier to process to manage.
Continually training your teams can help you to adapt quickly to market forces and can also put you in a position where you are able to grab opportunities as they arise. Developing people also helps to inspire creativity and innovation within your teams which is essential to business growth.

5   IT MAKES PEOPLE WORK SMARTER
Engaged employees work smarter, are happier and achieve more than their disengaged peers. They go the extra mile because they want to, they are committed to the business goals and they understand the importance of their role in achieving those goals. Sound perfect? Of course it does, but we all know that achieving high levels of Employee Engagement is not a simple task. It demands that many elements of the employee and employer relationship ‘fits’ just right. However, investment in training and development plays a significant part in helping to achieve productive levels of employee engagement.

Davidson HR can work with you to design and deliver bespoke training and development programmes that meet your business needs. Get in touch for a no obligation coffee and chat to see how we can help you achieve greatness.