Why Training and Developing Your Team Is an Essential Investment

The future of work requires restructured workplaces, redefined roles, and rapid learning. Companies that will thrive today and tomorrow are learning organizations that invest in their employees’ professional development. Your team members are the lifeblood of your organization. An investment in them is a strategic, long-term commitment to your company’s continued growth and profitability.

As a leader in your company, here are four reasons why training and developing your team is an essential investment.

Education and development enhance organizational agility.

2020 was a year of unprecedented business transformation. In the span of a few weeks, offices were closed and the shift to remote work forced leaders and companies to test their organizational agility or how they react to change. Some companies adapted quickly and effectively. Others did not.

One of the differentials between the companies that effectively pivoted was their sustained commitment and investment in their employees’ development. One of our clients, J&J, launched a new executive presence professional development program to equip and empower their leaders to lead in a virtual environment. Another client, Kraft-Heinz, offered a change management workshop for their plant managers and launched a new email management course to help their team members manage their inboxes more effectively.

In a fluctuating global economy, the most successful companies will be agile. Organizational agility enables organizations to respond faster to market fluctuations, to take advantage of opportunities, to leverage their competitive advantage, and innovate.

Training your employees keeps their knowledge fresh, skills sharp, and their confidence high. Change is scary and hard. While you may not be able to prepare your team members for every market variation and pandemic, you can use training and development to provide them with skills to boost innovation and agility when confronted with constant change.

Professional development contributes to employee engagement and fulfillment.

The cost of a disengaged team is substantial. According to Gallup, disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity, and 15% lower profitability. When you translate that into dollars, you're looking at the cost of 34% of a disengaged employee's annual salary, or $3,400 for every $10,000 they make.

Employee engagement is a critical business objective. Business units in the top quartile of engagement realize better customer engagement, higher productivity, enhanced retention, and 21% higher profitability.

In writing my second book, Own It. Love It. Make it Work: How to Turn Your Current Job Into Your Dream Job, I conducted a research survey with more than 1,500 global professionals. More than 53% of them said that their primary goal was to be fulfilled at work at this point in their career. And what did the survey respondents say would contribute to enhanced professional engagement and satisfaction? The opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge at work. Your employees want to grow and advance in their careers.

When you invest in ongoing professional growth and development, your staff expands their current capabilities, expertise, and learns new skills. This is an investment that pays off. You have more people ready to assume and excel in leadership positions in your company, and you enable your employees to stay excited, passionate, and engaged in their jobs.

Productivity training enables consistent performance and profitability.

How and where we work has changed and will only continue to evolve. To enable your organization to prosper now and in the workplace of the future requires consistent investment in productivity training.  Productivity training allows your team to assess and evaluate the pros and cons of the methods they use to currently complete their work and how to optimize their workflow to ensure ongoing performance and profitability.

Persistent, transformative, rapid change is the new normal in business. Your team members need to be equipped and empowered to adjust how they work to respond to changes in your business, your industry, and in the global economy.

Ongoing skill development helps retain talented, high potential employees.

Employees who are not given opportunities to continually update their skills are more inclined to leave reports the Society of Human Resource professionals. Turnover is costly. According to Josh Bersin of Deloitte, the cost of losing an employee can range from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5 – 2.0x the employee’s annual salary. These costs include hiring, onboarding, and training. However, these costs do not include the negative impact a revolving door has on your brand, employee morale, and lost productivity.

Turnover is cyclical. When an employee leaves, it impacts your culture and the workload of their teammates. Overworked team members are more susceptible to burnout which generally leads to disengagement and additional turnover.

When you strategically invest in your employees, you attract and retain talented, high potential team members. Continuous skill development strengthens your culture and demonstrates to your staff that you are invested in their career and their long-term potential in your organization.

Your employees are vital to your company’s performance, growth, and profitability. The training and development of your team is an essential investment you can make today.

Take this assessment to receive an in-depth understanding of your team members’ unique Productivity Styles — how they think, process information, communicate, and collaborate with other people — so you can lead an engaged team that consistently delivers, regardless of where, or how, they work.