Employers are a dime-a-dozen; candidates on the other hand… well, candidates have the final say in the hiring process. So how can you make yourself stand out to the talent you’ve had your eye on? Your training program discussed with candidates can set you apart from the competition. However, it has to be innovative and thorough and versatile enough to cater to the different types of learning styles and generational learning gaps. For instance, Millennials don’t learn the same way Boomers do. Millennials require more of an interactive training style, whereas Boomers are comfortable with binders and paperwork. Where does your training program match up?
76 percent of employees choose opportunities for growth over financial motivators.
Candidates and employees alike want to see a chance to better their skills. The opportunity for growth keeps them interested and motivated in their work. This interest could mean the difference between another contract signed or another contract down the drain. So, the time and money spent training your team is actually worth it. Because of the growth in technology advancement, it has pushed its way into training programs across the world. Interactive, game-oriented (gamification) platforms lead and tracked by HR professionals in leaderboards. The friendly competition rewards employees with intrinsic prizes rather than cash rewards. It keeps “players” interested and they are more apt to perform better if they compete with themselves and coworkers.
Take the United States Navy, for example, which altered its training program for efficiency and effectiveness during a time of severe training needs. In order to quickly train fresh recruits to repair ships, they needed a way to highly engage them while they were in the process of training. Navy officials focused on the learning preferences of Millennials (who are typically the new sailors), researching what they would need to change of their current programs. They realized the educational needs of the new recruits and turned their typical classroom training to three-dimensional, hands on program. The results not only showed an improvement in recruit skill, but also an increase in training engagement.
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Corporate training grew by 15 percent last year in the U.S.
An increase in the quality of training will ultimately increase employee engagement levels. High quality training is a reflection of company affluence, so with a better training program, your employees are more likely to value their work and the office in which they work. It stands to reason then, that during economic recessions, training programs are forgotten or dismissed as less important or less relevant. However, there still seems to be a gap between the level of training employees expect and what the employer actually provides.
The use of every-evolving technology in developing training programs can result in a turnover reduction. And since it costs 6 to 9 months of an employee’s salary to replace them, lowering your turnover rate should take precedence. A better training program reduces turnover, a reduction in turnover reduces employee replacement costs, and subsequently greater savings for the company’s financial department.
Only 25 percent of employees believe their organization sponsors effective training.
With only one quarter of the working population seeing the success of corporate training programs, this means there needs to be a change with the training standards. Low morale, low productivity, poor interpersonal skills, and managerial distrust can all be solved with a healthy training system. On-the-job training is not only effective for raising employee morale; it increases productivity as a direct result of heightened morale. In fact, of the companies that have effective career growth programs, 71 percent feel training is better grasped while working. So what exactly makes these training methods worthwhile? Open communication between trainees and leadership and an enthusiastic energy that fosters an atmosphere of motivation.
Employees value intrinsic rewards over fleeting options such as cash, and yet so many training programs still use a classroom standard for seminar style classes. Does your company have an effective and modern training program in place? If you’re not including new technology or thinking of other ways to modernize your standard pen and paper seminar, you’re missing out on candidates that strive to better themselves in training programs provided by the companies they work for.
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