Increase Employee Engagement with Ongoing Training and Development

Employee Engagement Is On The Rise

Employee Engagement has been creating a lot of buzz. The level of engagement among employees is often associated with good work culture, learning opportunities, employee-manager relationships, competitive pay, recognition, positive experiences at workplace etc.

Studies around the world have shown that engaged employees feel more enthusiastic and committed to their work as compared to disengaged individuals, and they’re more likely to take responsibility for driving a company’s growth, innovation and revenue. Organizations with high numbers of engaged employees see good business outcomes such as high productivity, better customer services and profitability.

A Gallup research states, that engaged employees comprise only 30% of the total workforce in U.S. But the good news is, Employee Engagement has been trending upward since 2013.

Another research by Gallup reveals that workforce engagement is also influenced by factors related to a company’s human capital and performance management strategies. The future of a business depends on the capabilities to learn and develop employees to prepare them for unforeseen challenges and their professional growth.

Significance of Training & Learning Programs for Employees

According to Josh Bersin from Bersin by Deloitte, “One of the most important factors in a highly engaged company is the strength of its learning programs.” Ongoing learning and development opportunities truly matter for employees.

There are primarily four reasons for each organization to offer learning opportunities:

• Employees feel more inclined towards employers that provide ongoing training, as it helps the employees unlock future job opportunities and boost career growth.
• Continuous learning keeps employees excited as each day comes with new challenges.
• Training programs give a fair chance to individuals to overcome their weaknesses.
• When employee training needs are taken care off, employees feel more valued and cover an extra mile to perform well.

Can A Training Program Increase Employee Engagement?

Yes. It surely can! An employer’s commitment to invest time and effort in training clarifies that the employer cares about professional development and growth of the employees. It keeps the workforce satisfied, motivated and engaged for a long period. Investing in learning and development programs maintains high levels of workforce productivity.

3 ways that can be adopted to bring together learning and engagement at workplace:

1. Design Training Programs with a Purpose

Identifying training needs should ideally be the start point for any learning process. Evaluate an employee’s strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement to allocate most suited learning programs. Interact with employees to understand their training requirements and the purpose of this exercise. Keep your workforce focused and engaged by meeting their training needs

2. Use Technology to Train Employees

Do away with traditional ways to train your employees. Embrace innovative technology solutions to measure employee training needs, design training calendar, allocate programs, assign mentor and evaluate results of the learning programs.

3. Gamification and Social Learning is the New Trend

The ability to share Learning Resources and Content online has simplified the life of managers. They get the flexibility to share training content with their team members for skill development.

Gamification is another interesting way to keep employees engaged. By 2015, 50% of corporate processes were gamified because experts believed that 75% of employees would be more engaged, if learning included gaming dynamics. Games are interesting. When these games are combined with instructional courses, they arise a new level of enthusiasm amongst employees. This is an easiest, most entertaining way to train the workforce.

Remember:

Developing employee skills is a key to having an engaged, high performing workforce. All the growth-minded organizations must take initiatives to strengthen employee engagement in 2018, through developing smart training programs.

When done efficiently, training and development becomes a differentiator among organizations that value their employees and those who don’t.