Any entrepreneur will tell you that running a business is all about making the right investments. Company owners need to be prepared to invest money, time, and effort into a variety of channels to help their business succeed. Whether this involves investing in the latest technology, outsourcing to professional marketing companies or hiring professional experts, what you get out of a business is determined by what you put in. And, the same can be said for business employees. If you hire employees, they are also investing their time and energy into your business – and investing in them can make a huge difference. Making smart investments in your employees is hugely beneficial for companies, especially when this involves supporting employees to improve their education and their job prospects within the company.
Replacing Good Employees is Expensive
The cost of replacing one of your employees could end up costing you more than their salary. Today, most employees are not satisfied with working in a job where they do not feel like they are getting anywhere. People want to develop their careers and move up the ladder, so it’s only natural that they start looking for opportunities elsewhere if they feel that they have hit a dead end with their current career. However, this can be very costly for employers.
Providing employees who are ambitious and hungry to succeed in their careers with the option to obtain education and training through your company can pay off in many ways. Offering to fund a business management degree distance learning from Aston University that employees can do alongside working not only promotes loyalty, but it also enables your business to get immediate access to employees who are better-qualified, more knowledgeable, and bring a new set of skills to the table.
Attract Better Applicants
If you are looking to expand your company by taking on more employees, the best talent is automatically going to be more attracted to a business that promises to help them with future career development. In fact, questions about the training and development opportunities that you offer are often some of the first to come up in a job interview and some ambitious people simply won’t apply if they don’t think that a business is going to help them improve their career outlook. Today’s employees are eager to learn more, so it’s important to recognise that and celebrate it. Investing in employee education and training is a win-win for everybody, and one of the key factors that potential future employees will consider when deciding if they want to come and work for you.
Improve Employee Motivation and Productivity
There is no denying that employees who feel like they are stuck in a rut are not going to be the most motivated and productive of workers. On the other hand, employees who are striving for bigger and better things as part of a training programme or work-funded degree course are more likely to be productive. Not only are they in the process of learning new things and improving their skills, but they also know that the work they’re doing now is hugely important for getting them noticed for future promotions and different work opportunities that they may be interested in. Providing ongoing training and investing in employee qualifications gives them something to get excited about at work, which in turn leads to better engagement and higher productivity levels.
Reduce Employee Attrition
As mentioned earlier, today’s employees are often looking for work where they are growing and developing. If you have no plans to offer your employees the options to undergo further training and develop their careers, chances are that you’re going to lose them fairly quickly. While there might be some employees who are happy to stick around and continue doing the same thing, your most ambitious workers will probably start looking for something new if they feel that they’re stuck in one place.
Attrition, where employees are regularly leaving a company, can cost significantly due to the need to continue finding new hires to replace the leavers. As a result, investing in training that encourages your employees to stick around and remain loyal to your company can be a seriously good investment, not only in terms of improving employee skills, but also when it comes to the amount of money that you can save when employees stick around for a long time.
Easier Delegation
When your workforce is well-educated and well-trained, delegating tasks becomes easier than ever. If you are a business owner, moving away from doing everything yourself and passing on crucial business tasks to others to oversee is often a key part of business growth. When you invest in employee training and education, you will be working with a group of people who you can seriously trust to take care of your company when you delegate tasks to them and leave them in charge. Not only will they have the necessary knowledge and skills provided to them in their training, but many employees who are invested in at work will often be fiercely loyal and dedicated to that company. Investing in your employees helps you develop a team that is just as passionate about business success as you are.
Easier Hiring
Along with making it easier for you to delegate tasks to your team members, training and education investments will help you out when it comes to hiring employees for various positions that may come up within the workforce. Hiring from within is much more doable when you have a well-educated, well-trained workforce who are ready to hit the ground running with new responsibilities. You can promote from within when it comes to a wide range of management positions, improving employee loyalty, boosting your reputation within the industry, and saving you money on the hiring process overall.
Investing in the people who work for your business is one of the wisest moves to make. Providing access to training and proactively helping your employees improve their qualifications and skills will improve loyalty and productivity, helping you get the best results.
