The time and money that organisations invest in training their teams is astounding!
I recently conducted a poll – the findings of which came as a pretty big surprise. According to the poll, 80% of organisations had a training budget for professional development and soft skills training of less than $10,000. It also found that 90% of organisations ran no professional development or soft skills training for their team members at all. I was shocked.
Rather than focus on the 80% and 90% though, I decided to focus on the 20% of organisations that had a training budget over $10,000 for soft skills and professional development, and the 10% of organisations that ran soft skills and professional development training for their teams.
They clearly saw value in training that wasn’t directly linked to the workplace, and I was curious to know why it was so valuable. Here is what they had to say on why they do it, and what the overall results were.
1. They operate from the motto of; train people so that they could leave, treat them well enough so that they won’t. By investing in the development of their people (not just what they needed to know for that role with that company) they found that over time the individuals evolved as people, bringing more value to the organisation.
2. They found that their team members were happier when invested in, as they came to understand themselves and others better. This happiness was contagious in the workplace and for their home life, causing a bunch of happy people (how amazing!)
3. They saw an increase in how well their team members undertook their roles, even though the soft skills and professional development training wasn’t directly linked to their roles. They surmised that by learning new skills, their team members were able to improve on other skills, whether directly related or not.
4. Their staff satisfaction surveys saw an increase in fulfillment levels. Their team members made comments talking about how the extra training made them feel valued, because it wasn’t something that their employer “had” to do.
5. They saw an improvement in retention. Their team members were able to learn and grow as people, take advantage of promotions, and feel happy in the workplace. This meant that they saved the budget normally used for recruitment after someone leaves and redirected it to training the existing teams.
If you too, want to see these results in your organisation, I would love to have a conversation with you. www.uniqueteamtraining.com.au
