Want to boost retention, productivity, and attract great people? Become a learning culture, says a recent white paper released by CredEd (creded.ai). The company’s mission is connecting education and individuals to open up everyone’s true potential.
CredEd offers several areas where learning helps the individual employee and/or the organization:
- Improving engagement
- Learning culture
- Keeping up with the pace of change
- Attracting talent
- Retaining talent
- Generating ROI
Improving Employee Engagement
CredEd notes that employee engagement surveys consistently reveal learning is a top workplace priority. Furthermore, they acknowledge a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey that shows there is also an increase in performance along with the increase in engagement.
Keeping Up with the Pace of Change
SAP research conducted by Oxford Economics found that the number one issue employees face is obsolescence of their own skills. More specifically, half of employees believe that the skills they now have are NOT what they will need in just 3 years!
This surely suggests that, at least in many fields, retention will suffer if learning is not available.
Managing a Learning Culture
A “learning culture” not only increases the organization’s ability to manage the pace of change, says CredEd, it also has additional positive effects on:
- Engagement
- Productivity
- Recruiting
- Retention
Eliminating the Capability Gap
CredEd finds that internal advancement is the most important factor for filling skill gaps. The report quotes elearningindustry.com: “More than 70% of organizations cite ‘capability gaps’ as one of their top five challenges.”
Attracting Talent
Organizations that placed a high priority on learning have a significant competitive advantage, CredEd says. The report notes that for Millennials deciding on a job offer, the number one influence is the learning and growth opportunities the organization offers. That gives learning cultures a significant competitive advantage when it comes to attracting talent.
Retaining Talent
As far as retaining talent, CredEd cites a Gallup study that found “employees who get the opportunity to continually develop are twice as likely to say they will spend their career with the company.”
Furthermore, citing a Louis Harris and Associates Poll, CredEd says “among employees with poor training opportunities, 41 percent planned to leave within a year. Only 12 percent planned to leave among those who considered their company’s training opportunities to be excellent.” That’s a pretty dramatic difference.
Generating ROI
Of course, management isn’t likely to endorse a program that can’t show some ROI. CredEd found PricewaterhouseCoopers research that suggests that every $1 invested in eLearning results in a $30 increase in productivity. Hard to argue with that figure.
The report also cites studies that found that learning organizations:
- Have 24% higher profit margins,
- Have 218% higher revenue per employee, and
- Generate a 6% higher shareholder return
Another cited study found that organizations that invested the most in L&D (measured by total investment per employee and investment as a percentage of total gross payroll) earned “45% more than the S&P index average in total shareholder return.”
Of course, metrics like this are certainly not precise and don’t necessarily carry over to your organization. Nevertheless, it’s clear that today’s employees are concerned about keeping up and learning, and there are many benefits to the organization of being a learning culture.