The importance of employee training and development

Table of contents

1. Is employee training essential?
2. What is the difference between employee training and development?
3. Why should you give employee training priority?
4. How to improve your employee training process?
5. Improve your training with Easy LMS

Is employee training essential?

Employee training minimizes mistakes, which has an impact on the business level

There is only one answer possible here. Yes, employee training is really necessary. Without a training program, your employees will make more mistakes and require assistance, which will slow everyone down. Training employees makes them more productive. It also helps new hires become productive faster. In the long run, employee training minimizes mistakes, which has an impact on the business level. Companies that make employee training a priority have 281% higher revenue per employee and 24% higher profit margins [1].

Yet, many companies still struggle to determine whether investing in a training program is worth it. Often, business owners think it is only reserved for big companies with big wallets. Other misconceptions are that all training programs are overly complicated, elaborate, and expensive. They can be so complex that most companies generally end up with no training process, which is a pity.

What is the difference between training and development?

Employee training is focused on the short-term and has a clear end goal

Although trainers use the terms employee training and development interchangeably, there is a slight difference between them. Employee training is focused on the short-term and has a clear end goal. It aims to give employees the skills they need to do their job better right now. Most of the time, the improvement concentrates on hard skills, less on soft skills. 

On the other hand, employee development is a long-term challenge. There isn’t a clear end goal. It’s an ongoing process that helps build sustainable employment. Employee development aims to equip employees with the attitudes and skills needed to face future challenges. In the end, it improves both hard and soft skills. You can argue that employee training is an element of employee development.

Why should you give employee training priority?

We already mentioned some benefits from a business perspective. Now let’s focus on how employee training helps the employee.

Employee training makes employees happy

Employees are the backbone of your organization. If you hire the right people, effectively manage them, and put a smile on their faces, your business will boom. Happy employees are 20% more productive than unhappy employees. Contributing factors to employee satisfaction range from an excellent work-life balance to appealing secondary terms. Providing employee training fits somewhere in the middle. Research [2] shows that employee training:

• Makes employees feel valued. Employees who have access to continuous training programs are more likely to feel valued, engaged, and loyal to your company. To put it simply, they stay longer and are willing to take that extra mile.
• Makes employees feel welcome. Starting a new job or position can be frightening. Meeting new colleagues, learning rules and procedures, it’s too much at once! Effective employee onboarding can give new hires more confidence and a feeling of security in the company.
• Helps employees understand and fit in with the company culture. Some people can have a “feel” for the place they are in and quickly adapt. Others take longer. Facilitate that process by documenting your mission, values, and company culture (while ensuring your company lives by them).
• Improves your team’s morale. Implementing training programs in the workplace will help employees feel like the company invests in them. It keeps your team’s morale high, and it helps them to collaborate on equal footing. Also, research shows that employee training improves internal communication and positively affects team spirit.

Employee training improves performance

Employee training aims to update current skills or knowledge or provide new ones. Research shows that employee training:

• Improves their skills and knowledge. Training employees can help identify gaps in their skills that can be worked on. It also teaches them the technical and soft skills that are necessary for the job or to develop in a new role.
• Measures their performance. Performance reviews can be daunting, especially if employees get the same shallow feedback year after year. An employee training program gives the company and the employee the necessary information to measure employee performance accurately. Progress interviews become more valuable.
• Prepares employees for more responsibilities. It helps them know exactly where they need to improve so they can deliver better work and be ready for more responsibilities faster. They can easily develop into a higher or management position.

Employee training makes clients happy

There is a strong link between employees' well-being and customer satisfaction

The service and quality of the product and its success determine customer satisfaction. It is a no-brainer that a qualified, honest employee with extensive knowledge about a product or service is more trusted and valued than someone with limited knowledge. An employee becomes more qualified and skilled through practice and training!

Moreover, there is a strong link between employees' well-being and customer satisfaction. A happier workforce is associated with companies' ability to deliver better customer satisfaction. It is the most relevant to industries with the closest contact between workers and clients, including retail, tourism, restaurants, health care, and financial services.

Curious about its other benefits? Read this article about the advantages and disadvantages of employee training.

How to improve your employee training process

Like most things, getting a training program right can be challenging at first. However, it will get easier with practice and the right tools. It is important to evaluate your current process. Does it deliver? What are the bottlenecks? How can I incrementally improve them? To save you time, here is what we have learned through experience [3]:

• Ask employees what they want. This should be your starting point. If you match your training to the needs of your employees, you will have a greater chance of success. You can gather employee feedback with performance interviews, focus groups, or surveys.
• Make learning more flexible and accessible. Employees are busier than ever. Employees might find making time for training difficult and stressful. Give them the flexibility to learn at their convenience. In this sense, it helps to put your employee training online with an LMS. Also, make your courses short. Learn more how long employee training should be.
• Involve the team manager and HR. Managers know what skills their team needs. If you involve them as a coach, their staff will feel more inclined to showcase what they have learned. Also, the team manager can monitor performance to get the team to the level they want.
• Use a Learning Management System. With a tool like Easy LMS, you can organize all your training material in one place. You can style it to match your company’s brand. Employees can access it anytime, anywhere, and learn at their own pace. Using an online tool eliminates the excessive complication and costs of setting up an elaborate program for employees. Disclaimer: an LMS is not a good solution for all situations. Read here for what training types work best.
• Consider different learning preferences and knowledge levels. Make your training material as customized as possible. It sounds like a lot of time, but you can tailor the training to their knowledge level after benchmarking your staff’s knowledge with an exam. Regarding learning preferences, understand that millennials respond more enthusiastically to sophisticated training technology than an older audience.

How to create an online employee training program

Starting your online employee training program is easier said than done. It isn't easy to know where to begin. Let’s say you could break it down into three phases:

1. Preparation. It all starts with defining your training goal. What should your employees be able to do after they complete your online training program? You should make sure it aligns with your business goals. When your training and business goals are clear, you can decide your learning approach and match it with your target audience.
2. Make a choice. Most of the time, trainers want to cover multiple goals within one training, but this is a bad idea. Focus is vital; pick a training goal that solves a specific issue in your business and will deliver a significant benefit. Your chosen goal will determine the ultimate length of your training.
3. Create training material. Since you know what you want to achieve you can pick the proper training material. You have two options: a ready-made training program or building one yourself. Both have their benefits and disadvantages. You need to carefully weigh the pros and cons and decide what’s best for your organization.

Do you want a step-by-step guide loaded with examples that give you the tools to create an online training program? Continue reading our tips and tricks article!

Improve your training with Easy LMS

Easy LMS is a user-friendly LMS that enables you to create engaging and interactive Courses. Share them along with challenging Exams in our Academy. This Academy is the central hotspot for your employees to access all learning content. Just one click, continuous training for everyone! Save yourself some time and try it for free!  

Useful resources

1. Cegos 
2. The importance of training and development in employee performance and evaluation
3. Elearningindustry.com

Frequently Asked Questions