5 Reasons Why Employee Education Is the Smartest Investment You Can Make
Here is the sad truth. 85% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs and not happy in the workplace. That means going back home and bringing home a paycheck is the biggest goal for most employees.
This is the emotional part of the coin, and it’s not hard to see how this could affect everything.
It can undermine their development, performance, the culture of your company, and eventually, the growth rate of your business.
Here is the financial part of the coin.
The cost of replacing employees can be twice as much as their base salaries. Imagine the replacement is for one of your brightest employees; this cost gap could be much higher than that.
Obviously, something is wrong with the current system. Companies aren’t able to engage their employees and nor can they measure or increase the performance.
3 possible reasons for employee unhappiness.
#1 Miscommunication
Many businesses assume their employees know the company culture or about their role. This research showed that poor communication is one of the reasons that could cost unhappiness and millions of dollars.
#2 Lack of employee investment and support.
Business owners or managers hire talented people and they expect them to figure out everything by themselves. Companies aren’t investing in the employee’s career education because
- Numbers look OK and everything seems fine on paper.
- They see it as an expense, not an investment.
They can’t realize employee education is an investment and transform the OK numbers to breakthroughs.
What’s at stake? According to this study, employees who can’t feel a sense of development in their careers are 12 times more likely to leave their jobs. And employee turnover costs more than employee education.
#3 Crazy micromanagement stories.
Anxious and insecure managers love micromanaging people. That’s why in a study of 360connect, 79% of employees said they were being micromanaged. And even 69% percent thought about switching companies.
Micromanagement is unnecessary. It destroys employees, culture and even can lead to health problems for both parties.
These are the main reasons, now let’s discuss the benefits of employee education. We’ll convince you why investing in employees could be the smartest business decision you can make.
Employees are all you have, after all!
Why should good leaders invest in employees?
Good leaders prioritize happiness over money. Because money is the side effect of the happiness and fertile working environment.
This is the long story in short.
But of course, we prepared a list of analytical and emotional benefits of employee education.
When you wisely educate employees, you can build a happy culture to come to their workplace. A team that is happy to overdeliver goals because of the training programs they receive. And as a bonus, with education packages, you’ll attract the best talents in your industry.
Let’s dive deeper and see the importance of investing in employees.
#1 Save and earn money at the same time.
If you’re into investing, you’ll know, a good strategy could double, triple your investment in long years. Investing in employee education is not different than that.
You can transform your most confident, competent and engaged employee to a power-unit for your company. And you can do it for all your employees.
Yes, it’ll look like an expense in the balance sheet, but it’ll increase sales and output immediately. You’ll close the gap, with one extra sale or project you’ll acquire very soon.
As your employees become more proficient, your company will become more efficient.
This research showed that companies that offer training programs saw __24%__ higher profit margin than those who spend less. Invest once and you’ll be convinced of the outcomes soon.
#2 Employee transfer for innovation and performance.
We’ll quickly explain what Employee Transfer is:
It’s a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job or department to another. The salary, status and responsibility stay the same, but everything else changes.
What are the benefits of this?
In short, it increases the effectiveness of your organization and employee happiness. Here is a list of benefits why
- To Increase versatility and competence of key positions.
- To avoid monotony in the workplace for employees.
- To develop a sense of empathy among departments and duties.
- To create transparency.
- To build new friendships among employees.
It’s not hard to see that these movements in your company could cultivate the innovation culture. And you can do this without spending any money, all you need is good planning.
#3 Keep your employees engaged in their goals
Whatever business you’re in. The technology and ways of getting things done are changing monthly.
This is funny, but we need system updates just like our phones. If we want to remain productive in our fields, as the new strategies, tools and developments emerge, we must find ways to adapt.
Or else, we could feel unproductive and unsuccessful. Which eventually leads to unhappiness.
Since your employees are working 9-5 to help you grow your business, it’ll be hard to catch up with the rest of the world. They’ll more likely miss some updates in the transition.
To prevent this, you could consider giving them the employee training they need. It could be training programs, events, seminars or anything that could make them feel top of the game again.
This way, you can establish greater bonds, keep their passion alive to reach the mutual goals you have.
P.S. If you’re looking for a digital marketing training program for your marketing or sales team, you can check our growth marketing course. It’s a six-week remote program.
We teach about the latest marketing developments, tools and automation to future-proof your employees for the digital marketing transition. You can follow the link and find out more about the Growth Marketing Mentorship training program.
#4 Create a pool of promotable employees
You’re going to hire a new executive or an upper-level for your company soon. The new employee will know her job and the market for sure. But does she know your day-to-day business?
Could she know your customers or culture better than your existing employees? We’re not saying hiring new employees is a bad idea. But it’s better to create your own pool and educate your employees until they’re ready for a promotion.
This approach will also help you become a better manager. You’ll turn your focus to identify the weaknesses and strengths of your employees to direct them to the right courses and skills.
As you apply this strategy, you’ll increase your existing employee pool’s performance and be able to promote them when the time comes.
#5 Employees want special training to advance their careers
Over 4000 workers, 74% felt they weren’t able to show their full potential at work.
Now, check this. Respondents of this research revealed that they are spending an average of seven hours per week to upskill themselves.
Think about that, your employees are trying to learn new skills to achieve their goals.
Why don’t you team up and help them?
Know that they want better salaries and work-life balance but they’re ready to work extra miles to claim that. They want it more than you. You can help them by reimbursing their in-house training and skills.
When they grow, your company will grow too. It is as simple as that.
Convinced? Onwards then.
How can you start with employee education?
You can consider implementing something called an Individual Development Plan (IDP). IDP is a fantastic tool to get to know your employees and help them to set short and long-term goals. You can check this link to see an example of IDP.
By applying this, you can encourage your employees to ask questions about their careers and personal developments like “Where am I now, where do I want to be, and how will I get there?”
After you find out what they need or want to learn, you can press start to launch their education program.
Reimbursing employee education is not as expensive as you think.
For business owners, the amount reimbursed for an employee’s education expenses is a deductible business expense. Even more good news, if the educational expenses qualify, you may be able to exclude the gross income payment. This is also known as a working condition fringe benefit.
Another bonus for the Belgian companies! If you’re planning to future-proof your marketing or sales team with Growth Marketing Mentorship Course, you can subsidize 20%-30% of the course’s total price with KMO Portefeuile.
Now let’s check what you need to qualify for this tax break.
The education must meet at least one of the following:
- Education is legally required for the employee to keep his or her present salary, status, or job.
- Education improves or maintains skills that are needed in the employee’s current employment.
We hope you’re convinced and enjoyed the article. Invest in your employees, they’re the backbone of your business!
Ready to make a Real change? Let’s build your business together!