Training can impact performance, engagement, effectiveness, and even the bottom line. It’s a central process that most organizations—in some capacity—employ to ensure alignment across departments and teams. Training is part of every job. If your first job was at a restaurant, you were trained on the processes, expectations, and standards under which you operated. Even executives in the C-suite must take company-prescribed training.

Of course, I would say training is the backbone of business—this is what I do, after all. But I want to highlight some of the key functions of training and how it can positively impact the challenges modern companies are facing.

If we look at the data, companies that are not prioritizing training for their employees are quickly falling behind industry standards. They struggle to retain employees, provide unified customer experiences, and achieve sales goals. Training is a practical solution for many of the problems employers are facing today.

Training boosts employee retention.

Employee retention is undoubtedly one of the biggest concerns on employers’ minds at this point in history because there has been a decrease in employee engagement and an increase in attrition. A 2022 report from Gallup shows that employee engagement is still steadily declining. According to the report, only 32% of employees are actively engaged at work. That leaves a staggering percentage of other employees who are not engaged. McKinsey & Company found that 40% (or two in five) of employees are considering leaving their jobs in the next three to six months. Despite global changes in the economy, in our concepts of work, and in how we approach employee engagement, this number has not changed between 2021 and 2022, the report said.

If companies have proactively been acknowledging issues related to employee engagement and employee retention, why hasn’t this percentage changed? There are, of course, many reasons why employees are leaving their jobs. McKinsey’s report proposes three key factors:

• Employees are switching industries altogether.
• Employees are transitioning to gig work.
• Employees are stepping out of the workforce due to other life priorities.

In the last year, employers and companies have tried to address the employee retention problem by taking more employee feedback, adjusting company culture norms, and tacking on new benefits to entice employees to stay. These initiatives may help some, but in general, they are not practical enough to really address the fundamental issues employees are facing—and, therefore, are missing the mark when it comes to keeping employees around. Those three key reasons employees are leaving—switching industries, workplace flexibility, and needing better work-life balance—must be addressed in practical ways. Employees need to see their companies taking active steps to adjust the employee experience based on their needs.

Training is one such practical way that companies can adjust to changing employee needs and, ultimately, boost retention.

With digital training technology, companies can provide interesting training courses or upskilling courses that give employees opportunities to explore skill sets outside of their existing roles. For team members who may want to take on a new role at the company, clear learning paths provide an opportunity to try new things and pursue other skills in hopes of making a transition to a different role.

Workplace flexibility is a huge topic of conversation among employees and leaders alike. In order to support the flexibility that employees require in the modern workplace without losing out on things like productivity and efficiency, companies must provide employees with digital tools that they can use no matter where they are located. And finally, to support employees who require better work-life balance, companies can use training technology to implement processes for communication, managing hours, and even working on more flexible schedules so that employees who desire to spend more time with family have greater flexibility during the workday, or can work nonstandard hours without hindrance.

Training fosters engaging customer relationships.

This is a volatile economic time. Customers and companies alike are less willing to take risks and prefer only to invest in purchases that have a guaranteed return. It’s safe to say that customer loyalty is low. Consumers are presented with thousands of vendors and options for every type of product and service at any time. Their internet browsers support this by feeding them varied product recommendations on every website and social media platform. The best way to win customer loyalty at this time is to double down on customer relationships and invest in the long-term, not just the immediate impact of short-term sales.

PwC’s 2022 Customer Loyalty Survey found that loyalty to a brand drops if the digital experience is not as “enjoyable” as the in-person experience—51% of those surveyed said this. Even further, a quarter of respondents said they stopped using or purchasing from a brand in the last year due to a negative experience. This should raise concern for leaders across industries, especially if they are not providing positive digital experiences.

Training initiatives can significantly impact your relationship with your customers, boost retention, and keep your customers in the sales pipeline. A digital customer training experience means that you can serve your customers with learning resources that answer their critical questions, provide detailed tutorials or how-tos when it comes to complicated tools, or help them attain certifications around a specific product you offer. A digital training platform, when leveraged for customer training, makes your company accessible to the customer at all times, from any location. This way, they know that they can easily get the information, products, or services they need, so they’ll keep coming back for more.

Training can help companies bridge the skills gap.

87% of companies have a skills gap or believe one is coming, a 2021 McKinsey & Company report found. We’ve already seen this play out in highly specialized industries, like the healthcare industry, where a significant lack of qualified employees has led to a talent shortage. The workforce is already growing smaller, with fewer people in the younger generations participating in the workforce.

A considerable skills gap can impact any company in any industry by slowing down work, halting production, or leading to employee burnout (and attrition) as individual team members are required to take on more than one role at a time. The skills gap is an incredible threat to the function of modern businesses, but it’s a daunting problem to solve. How can you train workers that are already (as we’ve previously mentioned) disengaged?

The solution is this: get ahead of the skills gap by providing engaging, interactive, personalized learning experiences that encourage workers to reskill and upskill. In doing so, companies are making a conscious investment in narrowing the skills gap, and they are supporting the employee experience. Implementing digital training software (like an LMS) that can support ongoing training—and be personalized to each learner’s training needs and wishes—is a proactive way to manage the challenges of the skills gap. Even further, it can mitigate some of the concerns employees may have about their roles being phased out due to automation.

Companies will not be able to survive in this increasingly volatile job and economic market without taking practical, proactive steps to mitigate concerns about employee retention, customer loyalty, and growing skills gaps. Training is an incredibly practical and flexible strategy that supports companies, their employees, and their customers simultaneously. It’s time to invest in something that has proven successful. Digital training is the best investment companies can make in this volatile time.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ramesh Ramani

Co-Founder and CEO, ExpertusONE

Ramesh Ramani is the co-founder and CEO of ExpertusONE, the company behind the award-winning digital LMS platform. ExpertusONE serves learners across industries—from healthcare to manufacturing—with training technology that boosts engagement, tracks compliance, and streamlines the learning experience. For more than 20 years, ExpertusONE has paved the way for companies to train their employees, partners, customers, and sales teams.