Human capital is, in fact, the most valuable resource for every company. Constant growth for employees is vital to compete in ever-changing industries. Businesses are recognizing this: over ¼ of businesses surveyed across the U.S. and Canada are increasing their budget for learning and development programs. This is perhaps due to the fact that in the U.S., 92% of these executives recognize a gap in the workforce skill set.
Employee development can appear to be costly for an organization because it incurs time, opportunity cost, and miscellaneous training expenses. However, if an employee feels underutilized or unqualified for their job, it leads to a domino effect of unproductivity, ultimately affecting the wellness of the entire company. There are cost effective methods such as mentorship and elearning for development training discussed below, to start filling in the identified gaps.
Growth of elearning
Many of us live the on-the-go, busy lifestyle that is embedded in American culture, leaving little time or priority for tasks that do not lead to immediate results. In fact, almost half of businesses surveyed in 2017 revealed that motivating employees to make the time to learn and step away from their work is the number two challenge in their learning and development programs.
Professionals are seeing the benefits of online training, which includes higher retention, engagement, and test scores for employees, all at a low cost for the employer.
Get Started – Make a Plan
After identifying where the gaps lie, do you suddenly feel overwhelmed? Start with SMART goals. When creating a development training plan, keep these aspects in mind:
SMART goals are different because it breaks down the big picture goal into smaller, attainable steps. These also help out with consistency as creating a time based plan allows an individual to gradually make progress instead of procrastinating until the very end. It also allows for flexibility for each individual, but consistency in the foundation on which these goals are formed.
Keeping one another accountable and motivated is also important. Assigning a mentor or manager to check in with weekly or monthly helps one another stay on track. As this training evolves into a company wide initiative, prioritising this effort will result in long run benefits, further developing a culture of learning.
With gradual training, employees can avoid being stagnant and continue to develop their skills to success. To get started on learning more about employee development training and its role within your company, here are some of the many courses available through OpenSesame that are 30 minutes or less:
OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive library of elearning courses to help build the most productive and admired workforces. Contact us at (503) 808-1268 or support@opensesame.com for more information.