The Role of Training and Development in Talent Retention

Friday, July, 27 2012

It is not unusual for employers to hire employees with the thought in mind that they are fully trained. Unfortunately, as new technologies, products, and services are deployed by businesses in every sector on a daily basis, it is common for service, support, sales, and marketing staffs to fall out of touch with new developments. Top performers are going to look for opportunities to grow their knowledge of new tools, products, and services. An organization is at potential risk of losing those top performers to a competitor simply on the basis of the availability of training and development opportunities.

In a 2011 whitepaper by Hays Recruiting Experts Worldwide, a leading global talent acquisition organization, titled “Bridging the Skills Gap - Research and insights that can impact on your world of work 2011”, Hays identified six (6) areas of concern.

1. Flexibility

2. Planning

3. Employment Branding

4. Multi Directional Sourcing

5. Train and Develop

6. Focus on Retention

Hays found “that 67 per cent of businesses are currently dealing with the skills shortage by training existing staff. Furthermore, 52 per cent believed the training of existing staff is the best way to combat the skills shortage moving forward.” To facilitate training and development, Hays found that organizations should maintain open employee communications, train current employees, use training that works for your organization, develop a mentorship program, and rethink the perception of training older workers.

To overcome any perception that employees are being trained as a disciplinary action, organization must be upfront and open in the purposes of training and development. Training of existing employees should mainly be focused on “up-skilling” based on the skills employees currently have in place. Training that works does not have to be limited to classrooms; on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and mentorship programs are highly effectively means of training. Mentorship programs provide both job and skills training as well as dissemination of organizational knowledge, culture, and values. Lastly, in order to optimize the organizations current workforce, organizations must rethink myths around the training of older workers.

Many organizations would be amazed at the training and development needs of their employees. While there are exceptions in everything, employees want skills that make their jobs easier, allow them to move into more responsible and better paying roles, and reach some level of satisfaction in their work. A November 2010 survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), “2010 AFP Treasury Benchmarking Survey” showed that “… education and training of key finance personnel, have a significant impact on the efficiency of treasury operations”, including the morale of workers.

Training and development is an investment in the organization's workforce in the same manner that upgrading equipment is an investment in the organization's production capacity.  Training and development provides a means of getting employees engaged and keeping them engaged. Thus training and development, employee retention and employee engagement go hand and hand with the organization's ability to compete in the marketplace.