According to the 2022 LinkedIn Learning report, 94% of employees wouldn’t quit if employee training opportunities were available.

The report also found that companies who struggle with employee training programmes see nearly half the retention rate than companies who do not. Could training your employees be the secret to a successful retention strategy?

Why should you even care about employee retention?

It is know that that high turnover will have a massive impact on you bottom line but planning and implementing effective retention strategies may boost productivity and promote higher levels of engagement, which ultimately increases revenue. These retention strategies should not be ignored until turnover is at an all-time low and a significant amount of damage has been done to employee morale.

Retention strategies are most effective when planned properly, with the business strategy in mind and then implemented continuously and consistently. Training is one of the more achievable retention strategies, available to organisations of any size. Upskilling employees has a return on investment for both the organisation and the employee.

Any old employee training will do, right?

Of course not.

Employee training needs to align with strategy and career path planning goals if you expect to see a return on investment. Training for the sake of training will not yield the desired results, if any.

What is the employee training process?

• Assess skill level

By measuring the current skill level of employees, benchmark. Training can then be tailored to be relevant to the employee’s current or desired skill level. Where employees are proficient, there is no need to waste costs on training. Where employees have developmental areas, extra care can be taken to assist employees.

A preliminary assessment is also an opportunity to assess the employee’s engagement, desire to progress, aspirations, and to assess the general employee demand for training.

• Train

Introduce training initiatives in a fun and engaging way, to let all employees know that training will be part of every employees’ daily routine. Training should progress at a rate the employee is comfortable with. The employee can become bored and uninterested if the training is too slow. If the training progresses too quickly, the employee may not be able to retain any information and therefore discard the training as invaluable.

Here are some useful questions to ask when conducting training:

1. Does it help the employee stay up to date?
2. Is the training personalised to the employee’s skills and job description?
3. Does it help the employee further their career and the organisation?
4. Could a mentor be assigned to assist the employee?

• Reassess to measure

Once training concludes, it’s time to reassess the employee’s skill level, giving you an idea of how effective the training has been. Should you find that the training was successful, you can proceed to the next round of training and reassess thereafter. If the training was ineffective, use your “check-in” time with employees to find out why. Do you need to change the pace or the content? Are there other factors at play, such as accessibility, relevance, or interest? Use your first assessment as a benchmark to compare against. By assessing and reassessing, you are ensuring that your employee training is not just a shot in the dark.  

Tip: Create short quizzes after every training module or section to establish if the content of a specific section of training was understood. Make this interactive – questions can be answered individually and then discussed in a group to share different views and learn from each other.

Are there other benefits to employee training?

Employee training may also increase workplace wellness. Wellness is another aspect of your retention strategy that should not be overlooked or used as a last-minute tactic.

A study conducted by Harvard researchers K Baicker, D Cutler and Z Song, on the ROI (return on investment) of employee wellness programs, found that for every dollar spent on employee wellness, medical costs fall $3.27 and absenteeism drops $2.73. That’s a 6:1 ROI.

While employee training alone will not suffice to promote workplace wellness, it will go a long way to bolstering it.

How can we help?

SelectONE boasts extensive experience in delivering specialised learnership solutions, which include Y.E.S and workplace readiness, that integrate talent identification, skills development and training, candidate management and organisational transformation objectives.