The smartest business move in 2023? Employee training. Here’s why…

As 2022 draws to an end, businesses inevitably close out Q4 by looking forward to the coming 12 months. Many will look to emerging technologies, and whether a competitive edge could be gained. Others will review marketing, shake-up their ad spend or ponder the merit in a rebrand.

As a training company, it’ll come as no surprise that we believe your focus in 2023 should be on training. In this blog, we provide some proof to our pudding, by offering concrete facts and stats as to why now is the time to invest in your people.

“The only thing worse that training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay”.

- Henry Ford

1. Training helps you to hold on to your most invaluable assets (e.g. your PEOPLE)

Staff retention is a huge issue with many challenges. It’s not only a driver of costly hiring processes when gotten wrong, but also a source of talent that is lost to your competitors.

Each time you lose (and must replace) an employee earning £25k a year or more, it costs £30,614. Ouch. This figure is made up of hiring, onboarding and training processes, as well as the loss of productivity while the new employee gets up to speed.

Now for the kicker – 40% of employees who don’t receive the training they need in order to be effective in their role, WILL leave the position within the first 12 months.

2. Employees want more than just money (even more so, when it’s Millennials we’re talking about)

76% of employees want opportunities for career growth

78% of UK workers say they wouldn’t work significantly harder in exchange for a bonus equal to 10% of their salary. And far beyond training that helps your people merely do their jobs well, employees also yearn for career growth and professional progression. This is especially true of Millennials who, far from being the youngest in the workplace, are now reaching 35 at the upper end of the demographic, stepping into the roles of corporate leaders…

“87% of millennials say professional development is very important”.

3. Well trained workforces lead to happier customers (and bigger profit margins)

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”.

- Richard Branson, Virgin

The numbers don’t lie – time and time again, training is shown to boost both customer satisfaction levels and business profitability.

In a recent survey by findcourses.co.uk, it was found that...

• 63% of companies with increased year on year turnover saw leadership and management development as their top priority.
• 31% of companies that had grown over the past 12 months used external coaching for senior leadership (which is twice the average).
• On the flip side, businesses with decreased turnover were twice more likely to say that they do not prioritise learning.

Ultimately well-trained, engaged employees lead to improved customer relations and a 20% increase in sales.

4. Last but not least – training develops your people to be the best they can be

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do”.

- Steve Jobs, Apple

Training can fill skill gaps, and ensure that rapidly advancing areas of knowledge are always up-to-date (such as training related to tech and digital marketing). Training also drives efficiency, and creates better, more effective leaders. It can even be used to attract the right talent, with 36% of job seekers now putting ‘growth opportunities’ before salary when on the job hunt.

All in all, the question shouldn’t be whether you can afford to invest in training in 2019, but whether you can afford not to?