Reasons You Should Invest in Employee Development

Reasons You Should Invest in Employee Development

Employee development is one of those things which is easily forgotten about. It is often pushed to the side by the pressures and running of everyday business. However, all employees benefit from a solid employee development program and as an employer you can’t afford to cut employee development from your budget.

Here are 5 reasons why employee development should not be cut from your budget...

It helps attract and keep great employees

Employee retention is a crucial for every business and reducing turnover is nearly always a priority for employers. One main reason for this is the costs associated with the hiring process. Having a solid employee development program can help reduce employee turnover and prove an effective cost strategy for your business.

When it comes to attracting, hiring and keeping the best employees, many candidates look at an employee development program as an added benefit. Furthermore, it is something employees weigh in the "pros" column when finding a job. Providing employee development as part of the hiring package gives you a competitive advantage over other similar jobs and wages.

Another reason is that it builds loyalty and loyal employees are less likely to quit. Knowing an employer is willing to provide training and development makes an employee feel important and it makes them loyal. That's what employee retention is all about, isn't it?.

Finally, it increases your reputation. Having a reputation as a good employer is something that doesn’t come easy. Employers who care enough to provide training look great towards new hires as well as customers. Word gets out about who is good to work for, and that can affect all stakeholders.

It helps you create employees worthy of promotion

Have you ever tried hiring managers and other upper-level positions and found that the candidates just don’t quite understand the business completely? That’s why hiring from within is a good idea. For example, who else is more aware with the day-to-day running of the business than someone who has been there for a long period of time! Although, not every long-term employee is ready for such positions. Thats why, promoting them when they aren't ready can lead to problems.

A proper employee development program will create a pool of capable workers, create workers ready for promotion and help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your employees.

Employee development both trains your current employees for possible future promotion from daily worker to management. As well as showing you which employees have aptitude for these promotions. After all its better to learn about strengths and weaknesses in training rather than out in the real world with actual stakeholders.

It keeps employees engaged at work

Employees who start to get bored are a recipe for disaster. It allows a negative attitude to easily slip in, sloppy work habits and can cause damage to relationships with other stakeholders.

Employee development is a way that you can keep your employees engaged at work to prevent that kind of boredom from setting in. Interesting training programs, and future development events that are fun or challenging to look forward to — this removes the plodding daily feel to a job that leads to that dreaded boredom.

It helps you save and earn money

A good employee is like money in the bank. That well-trained, confident, and loyal employee we've been talking about? They are going to do better work for you in the long run. Therefore, that is going to help save you money, as employees become more efficient and proficient.

It forces you to look to the future

Employee development is a continuing thing, and that means that you always have to have an eye on the future. You've got to be asking yourself what leadership style you will need, what will my customers need from my employees and how might the industry change?

Since your employees are integral to any of the above, their training and development are tightly involved, too.

That's what forces you to think ahead, because employee development programs don't happen without planning. The training that worked last year might not work next year. Your business culture might be shifting according to customer and industry needs. You might need to attract a different kind of employee and your development offerings need to shift to reflect that.

An employee development plan that's going to work necessarily forces you to consider the future path of your business. That's a good thing. Staying on your toes as far as relevant employee development is concerned means you'll be thinking ahead of the curve for your business.

Working with Vortex Training Solutions

Speak to Vortex today about working with us to develop an exclusive employee development program which provides a unique path to developing all employees and the organisation.

Start your journey today by contacting us. You can email us on [email protected] or call us on 0191 432 4401.