“What if we train our staff and they leave?”
“What if we don’t train them and they stay?”
This is a classic conversation between a cost focussed person and a benefit focussed person. Clearly there is a cost to train someone and there is a risk that they might subsequently leave. However, there is a significant benefit to the company of a well trained individual and a well trained individual is more likely to stay. So, what is the value of training?
Everyday is a school day
We start learning from the minute that we are born. We learn how to eat, to walk and to talk in our first few years. We learn to recognise colours, to count and to read and write. Our knowledge builds over time. We don’t learn maths all in one go. We learn simple addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division. It takes a long time before we learn geometry and calculus. However, we cannot learn those without having learnt to count in the first place.
Even after we have left full time education, we continue to learn. We learn how to use specialist software, we learn which restaurants we like to go to, we learn not to drink too much. When we first get a job, we don’t really know how to do it. We have to learn what to do. My first job was selling ice creams and while I did not have to learn much about how to do it, I did need to learn the prices of the individual ice creams so that I could do the job efficiently.
As we gain experience, we require less training about how to do a job. If we change company but do the same job, we do not need to be taught the basics of how to do it but we do need to understand how our new company performs certain tasks as they will differ from our old company. My experience is that it takes about 6 months for a sales person to get fully productive in a new company due to the need to learn about their products, their customers and the best way to sell them. Much of this learning is on the job but there are still some more formal ways of learning that are needed, such as order processing, expense claims etc.
Training for Development
If we only ever do the same role, do we still need regular training? Possibly not, depending on the role that we are doing but I suspect that it is unlikely. Even if we work on an assembly line, we may “do the same thing every day” but the reality is that what we are building will change and the assembly line will change so we will need to learn new things.
However, for most of us, we want to develop our careers, to progress up the ladder, and so, we need to learn new skills along the way. If we are appointed to be a manager of a team, we need to learn how to be a manager. We really should learn how to be a manager well in advance of being appointed but that is another issue! Being a manager comes more naturally to some of us than others but regardless, we still need to learn new skills. While some can be learnt on the job, these are much better learnt in a safe environment where we do not impact others that we work with!
So, training is important as we develop but even within roles it is important. We (hopefully) always learn from our mistakes but it is much better if we do not make those mistakes in the first place.
We forget things!
I vividly remember learning something in year 9 maths and, when I tried to revise it later in the year, I had absolutely no idea how to do it. I had completely forgotten. Of course, that is the point of revision. I knew how to do the maths, I just needed to remember how to. Once I had done it multiple more times, I remembered and could do it thereafter, though possibly not now!
When we first learn something new, we forget about 50% of it in a month and 80% of it in three months. You may think that this means that training is a waste of time but we still retain some of the knowledge, just not all of it. The amount that we retain will result in an improved performance, which is the value of the training. However, we need to continue to learn so that we ultimately get to retain the other 80%.
All of this has, so far, been mainly of benefit for the individual receiving the training. However, there are just as many benefits for the company providing it.
Training benefits the business
Companies that provide their employees with regular training have experienced notable profit growth, employee satisfaction and innovation. Training has a significant impact on the company’s success. Team members grow together and, even if many of them work as individuals, being part of a team and learning from each other, adds to the overall employee satisfaction.
Employees regularly state that the quality and quantity of training and learning opportunities positively influences their engagement. They are more likely to stay loyal to companies where they can develop and grow as individuals. The cost of recruiting a new employee is much higher than the cost of training for them so from a simple economic argument, it is sensible to train them.
High-performing organizations are twice as likely to provide ongoing training as low-performing ones. This high performance translates into greater productivity, more sales and increased revenues. According to a recent report, the best training will improve the performance of an individual on average by 20%. So, an investment of £1 in training can deliver a return of over £4 from improved performance.
In sales, this is even more pronounced. According to a recent report, every £1 invested in sales training returned £29 in incremental revenues. Of all of the ways that you can increase revenue, this has to be one of the easiest and most cost effective.
Conclusion
Continuous training is important for a company’s overall performance. If you want to be a high growth company, or just keep the profits that you currently have, investment in training for your staff is a simple way to achieve this.