Want to know the secret to getting employees to stay at your company?  Learning is the answer.  In fact, according to LinkedIn, 94 percent of employees would stay with a company longer if there was an investment in learning.

Why?

Think of your company as an airplane.  The employees are the turbines that keep your plane flying.  Just like any plane, the engines need maintenance and constant fine tuning.  A strong training program provides that sought after maintenance.  Without it, the plane will eventually get grounded and those turbines will have to be replaced, or in other words, the employees will leave and go somewhere they can get the training they want and need.

RESOURCE:  Corporate Learning – L&D’s Untapped Resource

And they will… especially be considering that learning and development opportunities are big for young workers.  According to LinkedIn, nearly a quarter of Millennials and iGen (Generation Z) workers say learning is the top item that contributes to their work happiness and more than a quarter of them would leave their job if they did not see a chance to learn and develop.

Training Value Stats

If those statistics are not enough to convince you of the importance of employee training, here are seven more.

1. 68% of employees say training and development is the company’s most important policy. That is according to ClearCompany.  More and more employees place a premium on their skills and want to continue strengthening the ones they already have and gaining new ones.  Companies who nurture that growth gain a competitive advantage.
2. Most employees do not believe they are reaching their full potential. 74 percent to be exact according to The Learning Wave.  Companies have a real opportunity to harness the talent and potential gained by hiring new employees.
3. According to ClearCompany, 76 percent of employees are looking for career growth opportunities. These opportunities show clear investment by the company in the employees.  As a result, this translates into the employee wanting to work harder for the company and increases the desire for more learning in the future.
4. 24% higher profit margins can be the result of companies who invest in training according to the Huffington Post. The benefit here comes from retention.  With a strong training program, fewer employees will leave which translates to a cost savings as it relates to the money lost in replacing employees.
5. 40% of employees with poor training will leave the company within the first year according to go2HR. If an employee is dissatisfied and disengaged with the company, they will not stay.  Professional growth through training will help keep them with your company rather than sending them to a competitor.
6. Speaking of engagement, Gallup says only 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged. This is a low number.  Basically, it means the majority of workers are disengaged and will leave your company the minute a better job becomes available.
7. Rapt Media says more than $500 billion is lost every year due to employee disengagement. Disengaged employees don’t work as hard as those who are committed to your company.  They only do the bare minimum.  Engaging and investing with employees through training helps increase their engagement and lowers the potential risks for losing money.

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In summation

As indicated by the provided statistics, training is more than just teaching employees to do a job.  It is about engaging them with the company and showing them, they matter through that engagement and investment.  Every company wants employees who are enthusiastic about being at work and committed to the company.  Training can help.

But delivering training can be difficult especially when you consider the workforce of today and the changes it is going through.  SAP Litmos’ latest resource What Learners Want:  Strategies for Training Delivery breaks down different training methods based on research around what learners want, opposed to what we think they need.

Key takeaways include:

• Explore what learners want, including their preferred training topics.
• Discover the most effective learning methods, as reported by modern learners.
• Find out how to best implement this study’s findings with expert recommendations.

You can download it here.