Every company needs to adopt an employee training philosophy to thrive. See how skills training creates a win-win situation for employers and employees.
Imagine you’re a manager who strives to do right by your employees. You want them properly compensated, regularly recognized and constantly developing new skills. But your hands are tied because the company you work for doesn’t want to invest in employee training.
Whether a company realizes it or not, they lose a lot by failing to adopt an employee training philosophy. Especially when there’s a labor shortage and companies are competing for talent.
Research shows the companies that provide training and development opportunities to their workforce tend to attract the best recruits. Prospective employees see these companies as having a good reputation and a forward-thinking organizational culture.
According to Glassdoor, more than 80% of employed professionals claimed they would leave their current position to work at a company with a positive reputation. For employers, these are ideal job seekers because they are people who want to better themselves.
Furthermore, companies that don’t invest in employee training as part of their culture often experience high turnover. When a company operates under the belief that employees are replaceable, they have it all wrong. When a good employee walks out the door, a company could spend up to two times that individual’s annual salary on a replacement.
So, let’s go back to the manager scenario above. If your executive team doesn’t consider employee training a good return on investment, it’s on you to change their minds. Ongoing skills training
creates win-win situations for employers and employees because it:
1. Increases Employee Retention
When your company makes skills development and career advancement part of its culture, employees have a vested interest in the organization, so they’re less likely to leave. As presented in this Entrepreneur article, Go2HR claims 40% percent of employees who don’t receive adequate training end up leaving their job within a year.
2. Yields Consistent Performance
Whether you’re putting together a presentation or fabricating a part, consistency in performance yields quality, accurate work. By implementing a robust skills training platform into your operations, companies can keep everyone on the same page in terms of onboarding and career growth.
3. Sparks Innovation and Drive
When employees learn new things and develop new skills, they tend to approach their jobs in new ways. They feel empowered to make changes that will increase their productivity and performance. Plus, your good employees deserve the opportunity to develop their skills and engage in new challenges or shift their career focus.
4. Creates Cohesion Among Teams
Collaboration is key to the success of any organization. Training that focuses on team building and interpersonal communication breaks down the silo mentality and gets everyone working toward a common goal.
5. Develops a Leadership Pipeline
Bringing in talent from the outside to fill leadership positions isn’t always the best option. Hiring an external person is typically more expensive and time-consuming than promoting from within. By providing your in-house talent with skills training, you can quickly fill leadership positions with people who know the business and are vested in the company.
6. Helps Close the Skills Gap
When it comes to employee promotions, an individual might need additional skills to be effective in their new role. Let’s say, for example, you promoted an employee into management. This individual might be a good leader overall but struggles with resolving conflict among employees. With training, they can become experts in diffusing internal disputes.
Benefits of Online Training as a Part of Your Employee Training Philosophy
If you want to sustain your employee training philosophy and your long-term business growth, you need your employees to engage at work and perform to the best of their ability. One way to accomplish this is by providing your employees with quality learning and development opportunities. And while there are a variety of L&D options available, here are the benefits of online training for employees.
1. Saves Employers Money
While in-person training can cost thousands per employee, e-learning costs dollars. After all, there are no employee travel expenses, venue rental fees, or material printing costs. Plus, the on-demand nature of online learning makes it convenient and affordable to train your employees regularly or whenever they need a new skill.
2. Maintains Employee Productivity
Online skills training not only eliminates travel costs but also keeps your employees productive. Instead of spending days in an instructor-led training session, employees can learn a new competency at work in less than an hour. And given that online skills training is flexible, employees can learn around their work priorities and pause whenever an emergency project arises.
3. Reduces Learning Time
One of the biggest challenges for employees to participate in skills training is time. Studies show that online training can reduce an employee’s learning time by up to 60%. Yet, while online skills training requires a lot less time, employees still need to have space for it. Research shows that workers get interrupted every 11 minutes. With online training, you can convert hour-long sessions into shorter learning segments (also known as microlearning) to allow for interruptions.
4. Covers More Competencies
Online training platforms have the flexibility and scalability to teach more skills to more employees than in-person training. For example, WorkForge subscribers have 24/7 access to nearly 800 online courses that teach skills related to rubber manufacturing, metalworking, Microsoft Office, project management, workplace communication, and so much more!
5. Addresses All Skill Levels
In-person training often teaches at a speed that accommodates the least knowledgeable person in the room. So, if you have a lower-skilled worker learning alongside a higher-skilled worker, the latter often doesn’t receive the level of knowledge they had hoped for with the training. With online skills training, however, you can efficiently and effectively meet the specific learning needs of employees at every level of your organization.
6. Enhances Learning Retention
For most employees, it’s tough to retain information from all-day training sessions. Therefore, many companies use online courses to provide employees with just-in-time training. It’s an approach that allows employees to learn a new competency and immediately apply it on the job—all of which promotes knowledge retention.
Furthermore, online training promotes knowledge retention by addressing various learning styles and allowing employees to review course material as often as they want. It also helps when online skills courses feature knowledge checks and require employees to pass a final assessment.
7. Eliminates the Fear Factor
In-person training sessions are often considered high-risk learning environments. Why? Because many employees won’t ask questions or seek clarification for fear of looking ‘dumb’ in front of their peers. As a result, they leave training none the wiser and lose interest in future development opportunities. Conversely, there’s no judgment with online skills training.
8. Decreases Employee Turnover
Online training for employees is an affordable way to make skills development and career advancement part of your company culture. Through training, employees become more vested in your business and are less likely to leave. According to this Entrepreneur article, 40% of employees who don’t receive adequate training end up leaving their job within a year.
WorkForge and ARPM Have Partnered to Provide More Exclusive Training Opportunities to ARPM Workers
WorkForge has been delivering skills training to manufacturing workers for over a decade. We have the world’s almost extensive library for skills training and have curated courses exclusively to benefit ARPM members.
Our innovative strategic partnership with ARPM , offers various training modules that are exclusively available to ARPM members, including Quality in Rubber Manufacturing, Material Mixing Operator Tasks, and others. Registering for ARPM training through WorkForge also grants members access to more than 800 online competency-based courses. Finally, our partnership with ARPM extends a 50% discount on setup fees and a 10% user discount on our standard Skills Training System to ARPM members.
As our world becomes increasingly digital, online training is becoming more commonplace and more important in virtually every sector. As the skills gap grows in the manufacturing sectors, tapping into the many benefits of online skills training will help rubber manufacturing companies thrive and grow.
