Employee training has always had many benefits. It helps companies to reach their goals and employees to keep moving forward in their careers. However, many companies do not take employee training seriously, seeing it as an expense rather than an investment. They can end up paying dearly in terms of low productivity and high employee turnover.
Today employee training is not only important but essential if companies are to remain competitive and successful. Why is it so essential today? Here are some of the reasons.
Increasing automation
Automation is becoming more and more significant in the workplace. People fear to lose their jobs to robots and as chatbots, driverless cars and e-learning become a reality, this does mean certain jobs that are easy to automate will become redundant. However, who will program chatbots, engineer driverless cars and create courses for e-learning?
Employees will need training for new kinds of jobs in the future. Businesses may not be able to prepare employees for jobs that don’t exist. Still, training can equip them with the skills they need to transition from routine jobs where automation is possible to those where critical thinking is required.
More agility
As the global economy keeps evolving, the companies that will be successful are those who can adapt to change. Continuous training for employees keeps their skills up-to-date and their knowledge fresh.
For example, a business analyst certification provides proactive, introductory coverage of all the skills and knowledge essential to business analysts today and in the foreseeable future.
When employees can access the information they need when they face a challenge, they can respond quickly and effectively.
Employee satisfaction
Employees usually want to progress and skills training helps them to do so. One of the most important factors driving employee decisions today is access to ongoing training. This offers them the opportunity to improve the skills they have and to learn new ones.
When employers invest in their growth, they become more loyal and engaged in their work. This will be important in the future when talented employees are in demand. They will need a reason not to accept a flashy job offer from another company.
All companies want to attract the best possible talent and employees want to work for companies who don’t treat them as disposable assets but invest in their growth.
A competitive advantage
Companies are now competing in a global market. Consumers have so many choices because the internet has made products and services widely available. In such an environment, employee training gives a company a competitive advantage as well-trained employees can offer higher quality products, better service delivery and more efficient customer support.
Providing employees with challenging projects and offering them the support they need means being able to deliver better products to the market. Listening to employees can offer insights that can be used to improve the quality of service.
Availability of learning technology
Technology has made it possible to provide convenient, accessible solutions for ongoing learning. Micro-learning content allows employees to learn in a relevant way and on demand and e-learning courses allow companies to offer consistent training even when teams are geographically dispersed.
Gamification can make learning more engaging and fun. These types of learning are easily achieved without many of the headaches and costs associated with classroom learning. Continuous, on-demand, relevant employee training is easier to achieve than ever today thanks to the availability of learning technology.
Original Article:
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/06/18/investing-in-training-for-employers/