From the course: Your L&D Organization as a Competitive Advantage

Loyalty and retention

From the course: Your L&D Organization as a Competitive Advantage

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Loyalty and retention

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- A recent survey by the training and development company, GoToHR indicated 40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. They cite the lack of skills training and development as the principle reason for moving on. Think of your own situation. Do you want to stay with an organization that doesn't offer training, doesn't invest in your future, and expects you to be responsible for learning about new techniques, software, and corporate initiatives on your own? Probably not. Studies and common sense both indicate that to maintain employee loyalty and keep employees engaged within your organization, you need to offer them meaningful learning and growth opportunities. A well-designed employee onboarding program helps ease employees into the organization. It lets them know what are the rules of the organization, how to engage with fellow employees, office protocol, and how to work with customers. Employees who do not receive training often become anxious that they're not doing the right thing. They may even worry that they are not contributing properly to the organization. This sense of uneasiness contributes to an employee wanting to find a new job and does not help with productivity. Unfortunately the uneasiness can even translate into interactions with customers which not only reflects poorly on the employee, but can hurt the organization over the long run. Once a new employee has been properly trained and is comfortable performing their job, it's important that the training and development opportunities are continually made available. Many companies do a good job with onboarding new employees and with executive leadership training, but fail at providing mid-career learning opportunities. This can lead to a loyal employee seeking other opportunities. Learning new skills and honing existing skills increases organizational productivity and allows an employee to have a sense of accomplishment and loyalty to the organization. When employees feel good about what they are doing and feel as if they are contributing genuinely to the good of the organization, they remain with the organization and contribute freely their knowledge and ideas with other employees. Losing mid-career employees or any employee for that matter, is a significant blow to an organization. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, The cost of replacing an employee is somewhere between 90% and 200% of their annual salary. In addition, when a mid-career employee leaves, not only are they expensive to replace but the organizational knowledge they possess can be priceless and is often lost and never recovered. The bottom line is that creating effective, career long training programs, increases employee retention and loyalty, which provides a competitive advantage over organizations that don't invest in training.

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