There are many benefits to a robust training program. The most direct benefit is creating more effective, productive employees. But training also helps boost employee engagement, and it can even be an effective recruitment tool.
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With the unemployment rate at historic lows, employers are going to great lengths to stand out from competitors in their recruitment efforts. Competitive salary, generous benefits, and great work/life balance are common perks, but what about training and development?
Employees Value Training and Development
Employees are craving opportunities to grow and develop, with 86% of respondents to a SurveyMonkey poll saying that job training is important to them and 74% saying they are willing to learn outside of work hours to improve their job performance.
Younger employees in particular crave learning and development opportunities. Eighty percent of Millennials in one survey said that an emphasis on personal growth is a company culture’s most important quality, and 71% who said they were likely to leave an organization in 2 years were dissatisfied with how their leadership skills were being developed.
Personal Growth for the Long Term
Not only are employees craving opportunities for growth and development, but the ones who value these most in an employer are the types of employees organizations should hunt for: those dedicated to personal growth and who exhibit initiative and ambition.
This provides benefits not just for a new hire’s first position in the company but also for potential career advancement, which can be a significant boon to a company’s succession planning and leadership development.
So, if jobseekers crave development opportunities and you have a great training program, you should absolutely be advertising that in your recruitment efforts.
Include descriptions of your training programs in job postings; on the company website, highlight success stories of individual employees who have grown and advanced through the ranks of your organization; and tout your training and development programs when interviewing candidates.
Good employees are hard to find in tight labor markets, and great companies should be showing off everything that makes them great. Many organizations do a great job of training and development, but people don’t discover this unless they’re hired, which is a missed opportunity to attract great talent.