In the age of artificial intelligence technologies, talent acquisition trends change frequently. Several studies suggest that learning and development is one of the talent acquisition trends that do not become obsolete. While initiating job searches or exploring job opportunities, over 60% of working professionals these days prefer organizations that invest in learning and development.
Likewise, over 90% of employees stay longer in companies that make workforce training, reskilling, and upskilling an ongoing process. The statistics depict the importance of learning and development (L&D) in employee retention and talent acquisition. Most companies and startups bring down employee turnover rates by running various L&D programs.
They create opportunities for employees to develop and hone skills after working hours by leveraging online learning (eLearning). Likewise, a surge is being noticed in the number of businesses increasing their L&D budget consistently. We can understand the phenomena by discussing how learning and development help businesses retain skilled employees and curtail high employee turnover costs.
7 Ways Learning and Development Helps Businesses Retain Skilled Employees
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Strengthen the Onboarding Process
As highlighted by several studies, a poor onboarding process increases employee turnover rates by 200%. The onboarding process focuses on integrating newly recruited employees into an organization. No company can engage new employees early without making their onboarding experience smooth.
Onboarding training helps businesses engage new hires early. The L&D program focuses on assisting employees to acquire the knowledge, skills, and behavior required to adjust to the work environment. In addition, a clear understanding of the company culture boosts new hires’ productivity in a short amount of time.
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Foster Professional Growth
Automation tools enable businesses to perform routine tasks and activities efficiently and accurately. Most organizations these days curtail costs by implementing special-purpose tech tools. However, many employees lack the technical skills and proficiency required to leverage enterprise software fully.
Lack of technical skills often impacts employees’ productivity and makes them feel unhappy. Businesses can boost employees’ productivity and happiness by providing technology training. In addition to increasing their productivity and happiness, technology training will help them make the most out of the enterprise software.
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Mitigate the Risk of Legal Actions
Often employees switch jobs when they find the current work environment unsafe. A company can increase employee retention rates only by building a working environment where employees feel safe and secure. They can make employees feel safe and secure by providing compliance training.
Compliance training programs cover essential topics like data protection, cyber security, ethics, diversity, anti-harassment, and workplace safety. After attending this L&D program, employees contribute towards making the work environment safer and more productive. At the same time, the compliance training program helps them stay safe by mitigating the risk of legal actions.
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Erase Fear of Job Loss
Several studies suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies might replace millions of full-time jobs in the near run. The fear of job loss makes employees feel insecure and switch jobs. While planning L&D, strategists focus on reskilling and upskilling. They create reskilling programs that enable employees to develop new skills.
Likewise, they help employees find new roles and opportunities in the same organization by running upskilling programs. The reskilling and upskilling opportunities keep employees motivated and confident by erasing the fear of job loss. Also, these L&D programs minimize employee turnover by keeping employees’ skills relevant.
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Create a Sense of Belonging
Most companies these days operate in hybrid work environments. In addition to allowing employees to work from home, they hire remote and offsite staff regularly. The hybrid work environment makes it difficult for employees to interact and collaborate with each other. The lack of opportunities to bond with coworkers often makes younger employees experience isolation and loneliness.
Also, they switch jobs regularly due to the absence of a sense of belonging. eLearning tools and platforms allow employees to collaborate and interact with each other while developing and honing skills. They do not feel lonely or isolated while collaborating with other employees in the virtual learning environment using discussion forums, chat rooms, and query corners. Also, companies foster a sense of belonging by running team bonding programs.
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Make Employees Feel Valued
A recent study suggests that over 52% of employees switch jobs when they do not feel valued by the manager. Many managers find it challenging to make employees feel valued in a hybrid work environment. They need both knowledge and skills to keep onsite, offsite, and remote employees engaged and motivated.
Leadership training helps managers develop the soft and communication skills required to motivate and engage employees across locations. In addition, the L&D programs make it easier for them to boost the productivity and performance of teams consisting of remote employees and freelancers.
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Build a Learning Culture
As highlighted by several studies, employees prefer regular and frequent training to formal workplace training. Instead of attending training sessions, they prefer developing and honing skills at their own pace. Hence, enterprises can retain employees only by making L&D an ongoing process. They must provide regular and frequent training to employees by running multiple L&D programs.
Each L&D program will enable employees to develop a particular skill set like technology, communication, or soft skills. Also, an employee can develop new skills by joining new L&D programs regularly. Hence, L&D reduces the employee turnover rate by helping companies build a robust learning culture.
Conclusion
The high cost of employee turnover makes it challenging for businesses to sustain profitable growth. Most enterprises overcome the challenges in investing in L&D. They train, reskill, and upskill employees by running important L&D programs like technology, soft skills, communication, leadership, quality, safety, and team bonding.
Cloud-based eLearning tools make L&D programs successful by supporting self-paced learning and fostering learner engagement. For instance, learning management systems help organizations create, manage, deliver, and monitor multiple L&D programs without escalating costs.
Likewise, digital library software enables employees to access eLearning content in their preferred format and language. However, businesses boost L&D initiatives by implementing and integrating various eLearning tools. The integration enables them to reduce costs and complexities by building a unified learning platform.
