A number of studies in the last few years have similarly shown that companies that consistently spend across all levels to develop their people reap the following benefits:

• Deeper and more engaged employees – employees deeply engaged due to proper training are 200%+ more productive than disengaged employees without aligned training
• Higher productivity – sometimes up to 10% more productive
• Better profitability – consistently 24% better profits
• Higher employee retention – companies that have proper training see less than 40% turnover in an employee’s first year

Many companies claim to have a great company wide training program, when actually very few do. Which explains why 69% of employees are actively seeking new employment opportunities for companies that will properly train and develop them.

Companies that shortchange their training will misfire on keeping their best and most valuable resources – people. These statistics prove it.

Where companies fall short are in varying areas, depending on the culture and focus of the organization. Here are some of the myths, or excuses, of why training is shortchanged:

• Training should be done in the course of work, so no other expenditure of resources other than the initial orientation is needed
• Employees that figure it out themselves are the peak performers we want, so not focusing on training will create the environment for peak performers to develop and stand out
• Senior leadership should get the bulk of the training dollars because they are the ones who can make the biggest impact
• There is no time to train, we are busy and have to focus on the job at hand
• What if we train them and they leave?
• If we spend money in training, the employees will want more money
• We can train cheaper in house, or leverage technology to do it for us
• It takes too much time to develop people, we can’t afford to get them out of their roles

All of these just exemplify the real rationale: these organizations value something else other than training. They value the short-term opportunity cost of savings of money and time over the long-term benefits of growth, enhanced culture, and positive impact in their industry.

Businesses are made up of people. Therefore, business IS people. And in order for businesses to grow, people must grow. That’s where the truth of this quote comes from:

“You don’t build a business. You build people – and then the people build the business.” – Zig Ziglar

Training never comes back void, as long as it’s done with purpose and with an attitude to serve and grow each member of the team.

Focus on training every day. It never stops, because business never stops. Unless your people stop growing.

(image: pixabay)