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Companies mainly depend on their people to build their brands and provide customers with the services that they demand. But, sometimes, they can take a cavalier attitude towards their employees and fail to give them the training that they need.
While avoiding training may bring expense reductions in the short-term, it’s a false economy. In the long-run, your company is likely to experience a raft of negative consequences that ultimately damage your brand.
Increases In Staff Turnover
Staff turnover is every company manager’s worst nightmare. You want the people who work in your organisation to stick around as long as possible because that brings down your costs. But sometimes, they just don’t want to stay.
There are many reasons why people might not stick with you. Sometimes, it is as simple as improper management. However, it can also be due to a lack of training – something millennials consider to be extremely important to them.
Poorly trained employees are likely to feel undervalued in their roles. In many cases, they will actually begin resenting your firm for failing to provide them with opportunities to advance their careers. You may hear them begin to use phrases such as being “deskilled.”
High staff turnover might not seem like a big deal at first. But when you factor in the costs of finding replacement staff, you soon find that it has tremendous consequences.
Many brands pay up to 30 percent of annual staff salaries trying to find replacements for people they lose.
Training helps to prevent this. It reduces your staff turnover by demonstrating that you, as an employer, are willing to invest in your people. Often, you’ll find that the more you invest, the more likely your employees are to experience success and higher morale.
Lower Productivity
Even if employees stay with you, there is a high chance that they will have lower productivity going forwards. Modern employees need training to thrive in the global marketplace. However, when companies don’t provide it, they can often plateau, never really reaching their potential. In many cases, colleagues can have tremendous education, but without relevant training, they can struggle to work safely and effectively on projects.
Top global brands dedicate a tremendous amount of time to training their employees. The reason is simple: the more they train them, the more work they can produce. Many firms get back all the money they invest and more when they invest in productivity-enhancing courses and instructionals.
Setting aside time for this is easier than it was in the past. Historically, you had to set aside a day or an afternoon and send colleagues off-site. But now managers can administer courses via a learning platform. These make it easier to provide colleagues with bite-size training at their desks, without all the usual transport costs and lost hours.
When you train your employees, you show them that you care. Giving your employees the skills they need helps to rectify their mistakes and increase your profits in the long-term.
Miserable Employees
Miserable employees are not good for business. People who feel unhappy or undervalued for their work are much less likely to give their best and far more likely to seek out alternative opportunities. Many times, workers only stay with you because they are waiting to jump ship.
Studies suggest that most employees, particularly millennials, feel happiest when their careers are developing and moving forward. They want a sense of progress in their lives. Being stuck in a dead-end job is the last thing that they want.
However, if they get the sense that their peers are leaving them behind, they will begin to get restless. They will start looking for job opportunities elsewhere, often accepting lower pay in exchange for the prospect of real progression.
As a company manager or leader, you need to be aware of this phenomenon and take action to correct it. Employees consider more than their immediate salary. They also think about how their current role might serve them in the future.
But miserable employees negatively affect your organisation in ways besides simply higher turnover rates. They can also bring down other colleagues and detract from your brand. In some extreme cases, they may even actively try to sabotage your company.
If you can, try to prioritise employee development. Don’t allow something as simple as training to derail your business. Find ways to justify the expense, such as higher returns or productivity in the long-term.
Unsafe Workplaces
Safety is the most basic reason for providing employee training. But many firms – particularly small businesses, aren’t covering their bases. They are assuming that employees already know how to conduct themselves in a safe manner in the workplace when, usually, they don’t.
In many instances, you have a legal obligation to provide your employees with health and safety training. If you ignore it, you could see your costs rise in the future due to legal fees.
Also, note that a lack of health and safety training can also damage staff morale. Employees may come to believe that you don’t care about them – or that you care about money more than their wellbeing. When this happens, they may start to look for opportunities to work elsewhere. They may also warn other people off trying to join your firm, denying you a supply of fresh talent.
When you neglect health and safety, absenteeism also increases. Many workers are simply scared of showing up for work.
In conclusion, therefore, training your employees isn’t optional for most firms. Instead, it’s just another cost of business.
However, if that sounds like a bitter pill to swallow, remember that training often has positive returns. It increases productivity, encourages people to stay with you longer and reduces the chances of litigation.
Developing a positive attitude towards training is sometimes difficult for senior figures in firms. But most of the negatives are just perception – not reality.
The more you invest in your people, the happier they are likely to be. And that can help supercharge your brand and expand your business faster.
