What Is Employee Training and Development? A Comprehensive Guide

Do you know how to grow your company? It takes more than just chasing numbers for an organization to thrive. You must work towards enhancing your employees’ skills for high-quality results in the future. Using LMS software for employee training is a sound business strategy, especially in the current era of working online.

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Article Roadmap

• What Is Employee Training?
• Common Training Methods
• Benefits
• Developing an Effective Training Strategy
• 4 Topics to Include in Employee Training
• How COVID-19 Has Affected Employee Skills Training?
• FAQs
• Wrapping Up!

Despite the potential benefits, deciding to change your approach to training can be intimidating. Many employers are concerned about the costs associated with implementing learning management software. They also consider the time investment and the omnipresent risk that a worker could leave.

While these fears are valid, not training your workforce can lead to worse outcomes. As Henry Ford famously said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

What Is Employee Training?

Employee training helps workers learn unique skills and enhance productivity and performance in their current jobs. While most companies understand the importance of training new employees, many avoid investing in continued training and pay a high price in lost talent and profits.

In this competitive era, recruiting quality staff costs significant time and money. Therefore, it’s important to continuously train, engage and develop skills to impact staff growth and retention positively.

But it’s not just about holding onto existing workers. Practical employee development training also contributes to a healthier bottom line overall. Companies with proper development processes witness higher profitability, retain more employees and have a more engaged workforce.

Furthermore, it reduces costs associated with losing talent and revenue. Training and developing staff helps employees enhance their abilities and feel valued. That said, an organization that nurtures employee skills attracts better talent and achieves sustainability more easily.

Employee Training and Development

Employee training and development may sound similar, but they have different roles and meanings. Training is a short-term activity focused on a specific position. It highlights the immediate requirements of the role. In other words, it’s a process of providing skills to employees in a particular task.

However, employee development also has a broader meaning. It’s a long-term process focused on the overall growth of an individual. It involves employees honing leadership skills, learning new core competencies, and developing qualities that align with their organization’s long-term goals and vision. If done correctly, employee development can lead to better job satisfaction, resulting in more engaged employees and preparing team members for newer roles.

76% of Gen Z believe training and development are a key part of career growth, according to the LinkedIn 2021 Workplace Learning Report. Your staff may feel less valued or underdeveloped when not given enough engagement and growth opportunities, which can ultimately lead to downturns in money and morale.

Employee skill development doesn’t have to be an exorbitant expense – the right training system is an investment with colossal returns

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Common Training Methods

It’s imperative to research well before implementing a training method to avoid unnecessary costs.

According to Statista, the United States holds a training market worth approximately $165.3 billion. With such a high budget, researchers must search and define the most appropriate processes to transfer knowledge to the trainees. They should also find the right approach to investing in training.

Some of the standard training methods include:

1. Case Studies

Case studies are a proven method of training that boosts learners’ motivation. Employers present workers with a fictional or real complex situation to analyze and find solutions. This solution is ideal for employees who have core knowledge about their project but can improve with proper training. It comes with low expenses and is quite popular in counseling, medicine and law.

2. Game-based Training

According to Markets and Markets, the global game-based learning market is expected to reach $27.52 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 23.77%.

Organizations can use games such as Old-Fashioned Jeopardy, What’s Behind the Box and What AM I for various educational purposes. They are motivational, affordable and competitive, especially in the digital era with virtuoso workers and applicants. This type of training teaches individuals to compete using leaderboards, points and badges in sports, business and law.

3. Internships

Internships are helpful for both employers and staff. Supervisors can benefit from the help of interns while providing them with guidance and new corporate experience. It’s an excellent source of knowledge in environments where trainees have basic knowledge and employers are capable of understanding and supporting them.

4. Job Rotation

Job rotation refers to moving workers between different tasks to promote variety and versatility. It offers chances to develop skills further and work towards appraisals and promotion. Apart from engendering satisfaction and cooperation among team members, it can be a great source of motivation, commitment and employee retention.

5. Job Shadowing

Job shadowing is a type of on-the-job training program in which a new and existing employee, who intends to gain expertise in a different job, observes the operating activities of an experienced and seasoned employee. This method helps generate employees’ interests and engagement by analyzing their work from other perspectives. It’s perfect for those expecting a promotion or a role change.

6. Mentoring and Apprenticeship

When organizations want to groom staff for growth and promotion, they plan to impart knowledge from experts who have mastered that particular craft or skill. This personalized learning structure boosts the mentor-trainee relationship and facilitates their future career. Some of the industries where this training works well are home healthcare services, outpatient care centers, forestry, individual and family services, software publishers, other information services and more.

7. Role Modeling

Role modeling is one of the most powerful teaching tools for passing skills, knowledge, and values. Trainees work in a real-life scenario and analyze their performance by practicing what they’ve learned in a stimulated and personalized situation. They can also evaluate their performances as role models and improve through strategies that help them become better professionals.

8. Stimulation

Simulation is a process of creating a true-to-life learning environment similar to real-life scenarios and culture. Employees or trainees can experiment by practicing their knowledge and skills through physical, hands-on activities without any risk of loss of revenue or clients.

9. Team Training

This practice emphasizes enhancing a team’s work processes. It doesn’t focus on trainees as individuals but connects the entire team by engaging all members in a single task or activity. For instance, companies assign projects to the entire department during internships and all the trainees work together to complete it within the deadline. This way, they enhance their skill in that particular route and also learn to coordinate and work smoothly and efficiently with peers.

10. Orientation

Orientation is essential for new recruiters who impart training through a handbook, lecture or one-on-one session. This method concentrates on providing all the information regarding the company’s strategies, background, mission, objectives and vision to new hires. It helps employees familiarize themselves with the firm’s protocols, goals and regulations and offers the right talent management.

11. Computer-based Training

This approach focuses on computer-based tutorials that offer instructional materials facilitating the learning process. One of the core benefits is each member has the freedom to learn at their own pace at their convenient time. It reduces the total cost of training, time involved and the number of instructors.

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Primary Benefits

Employee skill development offers knowledge essential to handle and prevent any accidents and errors on the job. Well-trained workers are aware of duties, expectations, responsibilities and less costly supervision, allowing organizations to devote resources toward more strategic endeavors.

The expenses of a poorly trained and motivated workforce make us realize the importance of employee training. Nearly a decade ago, Gallup put out a report that estimated that “actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity per year.” Whether or not the losses are the same today, the fact remains: disengaged employees are a major risk to your company’s success.

If these facts are not convincing enough, read these key benefits development adds to your organization:

1. Engagement

Career growth motivates people and helps them set well-defined goals for themselves, which leads to significant improvements in their productivity. A study by Gallup shows engaged workers attract new customers, yield better outcomes, retain more clients and are more likely to stay longer in the company.

2. Succession Planning

Investing in enhancing workers means creating more significant roles for tomorrow. Without decisive leadership, your team may fall apart, which is why you need a succession plan. Paying for professional and personal growth — in addition to talent management software that automates this process — allows you to identify who brings the most to a company.

3. Addressing Weaknesses

If any business evaluates human resources closely, they’ll likely find a few workers lacking specific skills. Fortunately, employee training and development presents a chance to provide essential qualities and expand their knowledge base. Team development bridges any weak links and gaps within the system. This way, every employee will have abilities to fill in for their colleague and handle any task efficiently.

4. Improved Performance

Employees receiving regular training improve their productivity continuously. Training programs familiarize them with the procedures and safety practices associated with carrying out any task. They also help build confidence among the team by building an understanding of their industry and responsibilities.

5. Improved Company Reputation

Conducting frequent development sessions develops employer brands. Training employees regularly makes companies more attractive to potential new hires looking to advance their skills as they foresee more opportunities for development and growth.

6. Innovation

Continuous upskilling fosters employees’ creativity. Training programs make them more resourceful and independent while dealing with critical issues and challenges in work. These sessions help workers learn about different IT and computer skills, such as software systems, to uplift their creativity.

Some companies also train to create spreadsheets and graphs, understand network arrangements and edit data in databases to offer a more comprehensive view of computers to improve workplace efficiency.

7. Higher Retention

Based on a McKinsey report, 41% of workers leave jobs due to lack of career advancement opportunities. Employees are more likely to stay in companies that invest in skill development outside of their current job roles. Effective training builds expertise in various areas, giving them a competitive advantage and motivation to achieve company objectives proactively.

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Developing an Effective Training Strategy

Successful development programs don’t just happen. They come from aligning careful processes. Read these steps to translate your business goals into a tailored training strategy.

1. Identify Business Impact

You must design your training program to meet your organization’s overall objectives. Keeping your business goals in focus results in measurable impact and chances of more success in future projects, more strength in your portfolio, more team enthusiasm and more executive support.

2. Analyze Skill Gaps

You must ensure your employees’ behavior is helping meet your business goals. Try to discover the gaps between their current and expected skills to pinpoint specific learning strategies better. Later, categorize these objectives into three main groups (motivation, skill mastery and critical thinking) and include activities in the training plan focusing on them.

• Motivation: How can you help workers understand why they need to change their behavior? You can motivate them and highlight purposes emphasizing improvements and achieving long-term success.
• Decision-Making Skill Mastery: Every worker performs different functions, but they all need to make informed decisions at the right time. It’s essential to teach them to evaluate the situation, look for all the possible solutions, analyze all the pros and cons surrounding those options and then choose the appropriate one. An individual with good decision-making skills can help their organization progress.
• Critical Thinking: Every worker should know how to perform their job. They should have all the knowledge about their work to complete the task correctly without errors and delays.

3. Layer Training Methods

Some of the most effective development sessions include sustainable and layered activities built for improving performances over time. A layered plan ensures your development methods target essential customers, employees and business needs while upskilling the right people at the time. This approach blends training methods and learning experiences to maximize the benefits of tour time invested.

4. Sustain Gains and Evaluate Effectiveness

Your employees’ need for support and growth doesn’t end when they start their job. They require continued development to ensure initial training sticks, and they can work progressively in the long run.

Professionals know the recipe for a successful career — ongoing learning and growth. It is important to train workers from time to time and analyze their strong and weak points to make training more effective and productive. Continuous learning gives employees confidence and motivates them to bring out their best in every task.

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Topics To Include in Employee Training

1. Corporate Policies and Procedures

Make your organization’s policies and procedures important training sessions. Many organizations provide a handbook detailing corporate policies and expect employees to read it on their own time.

But, most employees forget or don’t go through it. Companies must use a handbook to complement any training. Comprehensive onboarding helps new hires understand what’s expected and how to carry out their duties well.

Some of the necessary details are:

• Work hours.
• Overtime policies.
• The proper way to treat co-workers.
• Appropriate conflict resolution.
• Company expectations; the importance of attendance and punctuality.
• Use of corporate assets.

2. Workplace Violence and Sexual Harassment

Issues relating to harassment and violence should be a major concern to managers. Companies must clearly state what they expect of employees, how to document and report harassment and the penalty/punishment associated with it. Workers must know where to go if they feel threatened or bullied. They need to feel confident that their complaint won’t be ignored or met with negative repercussions.

Sexual harassment and assault training should focus on:

• Actions constituting harassment and violence.
• Types of intimidation such as verbal bullying, physical bullying, cyberbullying and social bullying.
• Reporting harmful acts in the workplace.
• Filing complaints against violence.

3. Management and Supervising

Companies must train their supervisors and managers to ensure proper leadership and guidance and avoid negative consequences. People with authority must know what organizations expect and how to react in different situations. Management should have the following knowledge:

• Policies employees must follow.
• How to eliminate or defuse conflict in the workplace.
• Punishments appropriate for employees.
• Things to do in case of emergencies such as earthquakes and fires.
• How to handle cases of sexual harassment.

4. External Resources

Employees must understand that there will be situations where internal handling will not work and external assistance will come into the picture. Companies offering benefits should make their people aware of those benefits upfront to avoid misunderstandings and issues later.

The external resource can include the following:

• Dental plan
• Health benefits
• Counseling
• Pension plans

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How COVID-19 Has Affected Employee Skills Training

The onset of COVID-19 disturbed the work patterns of most companies worldwide. One of the areas most affected is employee learning and skill development. The compulsion to offer work-from-home facilities to employees made it impossible to provide classroom-based, in-person training.

Before this global health crisis, 70% of respondents offered training programs either in classrooms only or as a combination of online components and in-person lectures. A total of 86% of these organizations shifted their training system to online platforms.

According to the survey by Simplilearn referenced above, many companies implemented or expanded online business models due to lockdown-related restrictions, which increased the demand for digital skills training.

Work-from-home policies were administered to slow the spread of coronavirus and results indicated this shift has had little or zero effect on the training quality.

Some Facts Related to Employee Training Before and After COVID-19

Before COVID-19

• 94% of companies offered training to workers.
• 54% provided training in the combination of classroom and online programs.
• 70% stuck strictly to classroom sessions.
• 24% provided only online classes.

Shifting Classroom Sessions Online

• 86% of companies offered classroom upskilling migrates to online courses.
• 56% of those organizations offer online classroom training, 19% of which provide classroom and self-paced tutorials.
• 44% deliver only self-paced online videos.

Online Training Seems Effective

• 81% of companies said that online training was equally effective as classroom sessions.
• 13% found remote programs more productive.
• 19% said it was less effective.

These findings indicate that pandemic has increased the demand and importance of digital employee training.

According to Simplilearn, employees have become more progressive while working from home. As a result, 77% of companies are now planning to expand work-from-home policies permanently.

FAQs

How effective is on-the-job training?

On-the-job training highlights the importance of engaging staff in workplace learning, familiarizing themselves with the company, job, tasks and responsibilities. In 2022, in-person training and programs for reskilling or upskilling are among the top priorities for L&D leaders, according to LinkedIn research. The report also emphasized the vital nature of helping employees through learning initiatives.

What is the difference between upskilling and reskilling?

Training focuses on two crucial methods: reskilling and upskilling. Upskilling refers to teaching the workers extra skills within their field. It allows employees to explore beyond their comfort zones and become productive and versatile. Reskilling, on the other hand, is a process of training individuals for different positions across departments. It is usually offered to professionals planning a complete career change or those with outdated jobs.

What are the key benefits of team training?

• Create a fun culture in the company.
• Boost communication.
• Enhance team cohesion.

What are different kinds of training given in the workplace?

• Management and leadership training
• Team training
• Sales training
• Customer service training
• Diversity, inclusion and equality training
• Technical training
• Health and safety training

Wrapping Up!

Nowadays, every organization realizes the importance of knowledge and skills. They know their evaluation is based on intellectual capital and physical structure. The easiest way to boost and develop workers is by conducting regular development and training sessions.

Supporting untrained workers enhances overall team performance, boosts the company’s reputation and addresses weak links in the firm. Promoting employees to constantly work on career development helps you gather an army of experts that will not only benefit your organization for the foreseeable future but also give you a leg up on competitors who lag in the industry.

Which types of training do you offer employees? Do you use learning management software to upskill them? Leave us a comment below to join in the conversation.