If you could change just one thing about your company that would increase employee productivity by over 200%, would you do it? Yes, of course, you would! But you’re probably thinking that such a change would be infeasible or incredibly complicated in order to have that kind of impact, right? You would be mistaken. It turns out, all you need to do is more of what you’re already doing: training and developing your employees.

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”―Benjamin Franklin

Profits and Productivity: Two Reasons to Take Notice

According to the Association for talent development (ATD), companies that offer comprehensive training programs have 218% higher income per employee than companies without formalized training. But it doesn’t stop there. These companies also enjoy a 24% higher profit margin than those who spend less on training. It would seem that continuing to invest in training and development, even when there are economic downturns, is the smart play.

At the root of these fantastic results is increased employee productivity, which in turn is driven by the skills advancements made possible through employee training and development. As it turns out, training is one of the most effective things that a company can do to increase productivity. For example, in a study conducted by the National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce (EQW), increases in workforce education level were far more effective at increasing productivity than increases in the value of equipment (a 10% increase in both produced a productivity gain of 8.6% for education vs. a mere 3.4% increase for upgraded equipment).

Employee Retention

It’s common knowledge that attracting and retaining good employees is vital to the health of any ongoing business. Also, few would dispute the fact that employees (as a general rule) want to do a good job. Putting these two ideas together, it becomes quickly apparent that for companies to thrive, they need to do whatever is necessary to help employees do well in their assignments, or risk losing them.

Employers need to realize how common it is for employees to leave if they don’t receive the necessary training to do well in their positions. Research shows that a full 40% of employees who don’t receive the necessary job training to become effective will leave their positions within the first year. 

Not only that but to keep them long-term, companies must also offer continuing development and opportunities for advancement. In a Skillsoft survey from the UK, roughly two-thirds of the workers stated that they felt workplace training should continue throughout their career, regardless of their seniority.

In another US survey of over 400 employees spanning three generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials), 70% of the respondents indicated that job-related training and development opportunities influenced their decision to stay at their job. The Millennials had the most significant results, with 87% of them citing access to professional development or career growth opportunities as being very important to their decision of whether to stay or go. 

Also, a long-term research project commissioned by Middlesex University for work based learning found that from a 4,300 workers sample, 74% felt that they weren’t achieving their full potential at work due to lack of development opportunities.

Employee Engagement

Simply put, employee engagement is the emotional commitment that employees feel towards their work, the company they work for, and the organization’s goals. It is not necessarily synonymous with happiness or satisfaction. To be fully engaged, employees need to be productively working on behalf of their organization, and actually, care about their work and their company. 

Why is this important, you might ask? Well, in a recent Dale Carnegie survey, companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%. That’s just staggering.

Training employees and giving them career growth opportunities is one surefire way to show them that their company is invested in their future. It will motivate them to keep working arduously and be better at their jobs. These opportunities are mutually beneficial since these training opportunities help grow the company while at the same time they further employee knowledge and skills.

This is true for all generations, but it’s particularly true for Millennials. A whopping 87% of Millennials say that professional development and career growth are significant to them. And since Millennials have surpassed Gen Xers as the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, this is a statistic that just can’t be ignored.