How important is training for employees? This is the question many organizations ask as they look at the costs of implementing company-wide training for their workforce.
The answer: critical.
Training is central to building an effective workforce and you can’t afford to skip it. Here’s why.
The importance of training your employees
The importance of training lies in the opportunity to strengthen your employees’ existing skills and learn new ones, helping to boost individual and organizational performance. Training allows employees to become more effective while also increasing job satisfaction and reducing employee turnover.
Read on to find out more about why training is important, the importance of training in business and key benefits.
Skip ahead here:
- General benefits of employee training
- Benefits of management and leadership training
- Benefits of sales training
- Benefits of customer service training
- Benefits of diversity, eqality, and inclusion training
- Benefits of technical training
- Benefits of health & safety training
- Benefits of team training
Why training is important
The importance of training employees can’t be understated. Training helps equip your workforce with the skills they need to do their jobs effectively. Training your employees gives you the opportunity to improve the quality of their work and boost productivity across your organization.
One key reason why training is important is the effect it can have on company culture. Effective employee training can improve employee loyalty, satisfaction, and commitment to your organization. Management training also teaches essential leadership skills, setting standards for your business that have a trickle-down effect to the rest of your workforce.
Don’t forget the importance of training employees in a targeted way. Training should ideally be customized to fit the target audience, whether that’s the sales team, management, or service staff. Every employee at every level can benefit from individualized training.
Related: How To Implement Employee Training And Development
The benefits of training
The importance of training lies in its power to increase and improve skills in the workplace. It can give your organization a competitive advantage, helping to boost individual and organization performance. From managerial training to sales training, training is hugely important for creating a productive and positive working environment.
A study of one US-based company found that employee turnover dropped from 89.6% to 56.7% in just one year after the introduction of several company-wide training programs.
Another study of organizations in Belgium found that productivity was 23% higher for trained employees compared to untrained employees.
According to a report by IBM in the best performing organizations, 84% of employees receive the training they need compared to just 16% of employees in the worst-performing companies.
Here is a summary of the benefits of training we’ll explore in more detail:
| General benefits of employee training |
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| Benefits of management and leadership training |
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| Benefits of sales training |
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| Benefits of customer service training |
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| Benefits of diversity, eqality, and inclusion training |
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| Benefits of technical training |
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| Benefits of health & safety training |
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| Benefits of team training |
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Related: 5 Steps to Kickstart Your Online Employee Education Program
General benefits of employee training
Improved skills
When it comes to the importance of employee training for businesses, one of the main benefits is levelling up your existing workforce through the teaching of new skills. Training can help strengthen your employees’ capabilities while adding even more skills on top, making your workforce as strong and competitive as possible.
Increased productivity and performance
Training has been found to dramatically improve productivity and performance by providing employees with the skills they need to complete essential tasks. Effective training can also increase independence, equipping employees with adequate knowledge to do their job, without having to ask for help.
Lower employee turnover
Research shows that training reduces employee turnover by improving employee engagement. Organizations with good opportunities for employees to learn new skills, acquire knowledge and develop their strengths can encourage more engagement from their employees. Employees choose to invest in the companies that invest in them.
Higher job satisfaction
Training can also improve job satisfaction by giving employees a sense of purpose in their role and clear opportunities for progression. Organizations with higher rates of job satisfaction have been found to have better organizational performance overall, making investment in training worth the cost.
Related: Top 3 Ways to Track Employee Training (And Why It Matters)
Benefits of management and leadership training
Improve management quality
By investing in management training, you can equip managerial staff with the leadership skills they need to manage their team effectively. Many managers feel unprepared to transition into their management role due to inadequate training. Common problems include issues with handling employee conflicts, motivating teams, creating career paths and performance reviews. Training ensures that managers are confident in their role and their ability to perform essential duties.
Happier employees
The importance of training management staff is clear from research. A 2018 US study analyzing the importance of management training found that higher levels of management training had the effect of significantly reducing employee turnover intentions. As manager training increases, employee turnover intentions decrease. Good managers make for happier employees!
Generate a positive company culture
Management employees also have the ability to shape employee behavior. The importance of employee training centers on managers’ role in influencing company culture. From inclusion to conflict management, managerial and leadership training is essential for creating an inclusive and inviting environment for all.
Related: Leadership Coaching Topics Idea Generator
Benefits of sales training
Better product knowledge
The importance of training your sales team cannot be understated. Good product knowledge is vital for enabling your employees to generate sales. When your employees have in-depth knowledge about your products, they will be able to sell with greater confidence, increasing the chance that they’ll be successful in their aims.
Enhanced brand loyalty
When it comes to sales, the importance of training lies in the opportunity for employees to become more invested in your products and the overall goals of your organization. With training, you can encourage your sales team to engage with your products on a personal level, encouraging more commitment from them and ensuring that your brand values are expressed in any sales interactions. This can have a big impact on brand loyalty, both within your workforce and with your target audience.
Drive sales performance
Equipping your sales team with the skills they need to be able to sell your products is a crucial step in increasing productivity too. Well-trained employees generate more sales! From understanding USPs to having in-depth knowledge of product specs, training is hugely important for building a high-performing sales team.
Related:
Benefits of customer service training
Encourage enthusiasm
Providing training opportunities for customer service staff helps to boost employee job satisfaction and engagement. Engaged employees are generally characterized by energy, absorption, involvement, efficacy, vigor, dedication, enthusiasm and a positive mindset, which in turn can improve the standard of their customer service.
Improve customer service standards
Motivated, well-trained employees are more likely to deliver a higher level of customer service. From dealing with complaints to improving communication, targeted training for your customer service team can make a big difference to the customer experience and overall customer satisfaction.
Build customer loyalty
By improving customer service you can foster greater customer loyalty. When individuals have a positive experience with your brand or organization, they are more likely to become repeat customers. Employee training is one method to improve customer loyalty by raising the level of customer service.
Benefits of diversity, equality, and inclusion training
Raise awareness
The importance of training is especially clear when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Company-wide diversity training can help employees to get to grips with concepts such as micro-aggressions and unconscious bias. Many employees may be unaware of how their actions influence those around them, especially when it comes to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Raising awareness is just one of the reasons why training is important.
Drive collaboration and innovation
Diversity, equity and inclusion training can generate both attitude change and skill-based change within your workforce. As well as raising awareness, diversity, equity and inclusion training can also help to drive collaboration and innovation in your organization by ensuring that a diverse range of voices are heard. Training can also help vulnerable employees to feel more supported, encouraging them to speak up and share their opinions.
Build an inclusive workplace
By acknowledging the importance of training when it comes to diversity and inclusion, you can take meaningful steps towards building a more respectful workplace with inclusivity at its heart. This form of employee training has the potential to generate meaningful change in the lives of many of your employees, helping to increase employee commitment and career satisfaction.
Benefits of technical training
Increase employee self-confidence
Providing employees with technical training is vital for giving them self-confidence and independence. The importance of training becomes especially clear when you think about the average number of tasks that an employee does each day – how many of these skills do they know when they first start the job? Training ensures that every employee has the technical know-how they need to perform their jobs safely, effectively and accurately.
Re-fresh essential skills
It is rare for jobs to remain unchanged through the course of an employee’s career. Technical training is important in order to make sure that all employees are equipped with the skills they need to do their job, including providing them with skill re-freshers and updates. Whether that’s compliance training, using new systems or getting to grips with advances in digital technology, technical training is hugely important for maintaining an effective workforce.
Reduce costs
When employees are able to troubleshoot technical problems rather than seeking external support, you can reduce the costs of executing technical procedures. Bringing technical jobs in-house can save you money in the long-term, even off-setting the costs of technical training.
Benefits of health & safety training
Reduce accidents and injuries
As well as being a legal requirement in many countries, health and safety training is important for reducing the number of accidents and injuries in the workplace. This can help limit absenteeism, reduce costs and most importantly, create a safer workplace for your employees.
Increase employee awareness
Every workplace has potential hazards. Educating your workforce with health and safety training ensures that employees are aware of any hazards and how to manage them. If you’re wondering why training is important, take a hard look at your working environment to see the potential hazards. This type of training is not to be missed.
Boost productivity
Health and safety training is an effective way to increase team productivity by ensuring that any potential hazards or dangers have been identified. If you skip health and safety training, you run the risk of employees taking safety measures into their own hands. This not only presents a danger to employee wellbeing but it may also end up being less efficient and reducing productivity overall.
Related:
Benefits of team training
Create a fun company culture
It’s no secret that teams who feel closer are more likely to have fun working together! A close-knit team can create a feeling of enthusiasm and energy in the workplace, helping to boost productivity. Team training is one way to build camaraderie and solid working relationships, helping to make work more fun!
Improve communication
When looking at the importance of training, it’s important not to forget the impact on communication. Team-focused training can help to improve connectedness and communication between team members. In fact, team training has been shown to help individuals develop beneficial neural, cognitive, and behavioral patterns that they don’t develop individually.
Increase team cohesion
By facilitating better communication between teams, you can also improve team collaboration. Your mind might switch straight to trust-falls and building tables out of newspaper here but the real benefits of team training are much more subtle! Team training is about fostering respect, understanding and essential soft skills that allow your workforce to work together effectively.
Related: Best Practices for Onboarding Remote Employees
Ready to start training your employees?
Now that you know the importance of training your employees, it’s time to design your ideal training program!
Our course builder makes it simple to create effective, engaging employee training programs that are tailored to your organization. To find out more, check out this article on using Thinkific for employee training or this case study on how one organization saved 15+ hours a week by moving their employee training online.
Take a look at Thinkific Plus or book a call with our team to discuss our system in more detail.
This guide was originally published in August 2021 and was enhanced in October 2023 to be even more helpful.
