Mark Wiggins explains why employees want more training – and why they may leave if they don’t get it

Ensuring that your employees are properly trained is the responsibility of every business. If you’re asking staff to do a job, then the least you can do as an employer is to give them the tools to do this. Not only this, as research from business print experts instantprint recently found, 56% of employees would leave if they weren’t offered high quality training. So it’s vitally important to any business.

The research asked 750 office workers, both employees and employers, how they felt about training. Topics included what they currently receive, how it’s administered and what they’d really like. Here’s what they found and how you can put it into practice at your business.

What’s the Current Situation?

As things stand, we’d all probably expect to receive some sort of induction training upon starting a new role. However, according to the survey, 31% of employees will not receive any at all. This means that almost a third of people will start a job and be expected to hit the ground running.

As far as ongoing training is concerned, the results were slightly more positive. 79% of respondents said that training was offered alongside their job, with 59% saying they’d receive funding support from their employer to achieve a relevant qualification.

It’s Worse in the North

Looking at the research, it’s clear to see that there’s a regional gap when it comes to the training being offered. Workers in the north are less likely to receive ongoing training, with 66% saying this was on the table at their employers. Down south, this figure comes in at a much healthier 82%.

One factor influencing this seems to be the proactive nature of residents of the south, who actively ask for training in greater numbers. 30% of those in the south said they’d ask for training, compared to 24% in the north. Employers might want to bear this in mind, remembering to regularly offer training and not wait for requests.

The research went on to examine the difference in training between different age groups, finding some surprising results. The generations born after 1981 (millennials and post-millennials) stated that 80% received induction training at a new job. Things aren’t quite so good for Baby Boomers and Generation X, only 40% said that they’d received the all-important induction training that they needed.

How, What and Why Do Employees Want to Learn?

Why? When asking employees what they’d like to learn, it was clear that skill development and personal performance were the key motivators for employees. This should be great news for employers, providing evidence that their staff want to become more effective and help the business thrive.

What? In terms of the type of training they’d like, a large majority of respondents said they want to see more personal development training. As an employer, putting bespoke Personal Development Plans (PDPs) into place could be the answer.

How? Getting the delivery of your training right is a big part of the battle, after all, if you don’t present it in the correct manner then it simply won’t be as effective. 43% of employees would rather do their learning ‘on the job’, with 25% preferring to learn via coaching and mentoring.

Leading serial turnaround CEO, CEO coach and e-coaching expert Peter Ryding says:

“I’ve always found the best results come from coaching rather than training, but these days there are so many ways to use technology to help.  The skills and strategies I have used to coach CEOs are now incorporated into Vic Your Coach, a state of the art AI coaching system, which uses the latest e-coaching methods to upskill employees, who can now learn the same skills I have spent years coaching CEOs.  Guiding your staff to learn is always preferable.”

Meet Your Employees Training Needs in a Few Steps

• Lead the Way: Make sure you’re doing your training from the top down. Everyone should play an active role in learning and development.
• Decide What Needs to Change: You need to set goals to decide what improvements you’d like to see from your training, this will make it easier for you and your employees to measure the effects.
• Make It Bespoke: It’s all there in the research. Employees want training that is designed for them specifically. Figure out what learning outcomes you want to achieve and design your training around them.
• Make It Fun: Training is all about taking your employees out of their routine and creating an environment where they can reflect and learn. Time spent considering how to do this will not be wasted.
• Follow Up: Once the training has finished, don’t think that’s the job done. Follow it up in the coming months, ensuring that everyone is happy to put it into practice whilst regularly monitoring changes.