Increasing Employee Satisfaction through Learning and Development
A large number of organizations, especially small businesses manage their human resource as well as Learning and Development (L&D) through traditional methods and are hesitant to adapting HR Technology to get their day-to-day tasks done. In some organizations, the L&D part is often overlooked because they are already juggling a lot of other tasks and deliverables.
This has for long been a universal problem, where employees’ constant complaint from the management was that they were not getting a scope of learning and growth. However, times have changed and companies and management have come to realise the importance of L&D for their organization. Their focus is now on creating organizations that have the potential to constantly evolve in terms of L&D.
Why is learning and development so important?
According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report, a whopping 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. In terms of overall talent development, a recent LinkedIn survey of 2,000 business leaders found that more than half (57%) put soft skills over hard skills when it comes to what they need their employees to develop. These are not just numbers, instead, these reflect the reality of the preferences of today’s workforce.
Let’s have a look at 5 reasons why learning and development is important
The workforce wants opportunities for growth and learning. I have been an employee for quite a long time, and my experience of the same says that every organization’s workforce wants opportunities for growth and learning. The employees today are far more ambitious than they ever were, money is not their only motive. According to a 2016 Gallup report, 87% of millennials say L&D in the workplace is important while 59% of millennials say having opportunities to learn and grow is extremely important when deciding whether to apply for a job.
- L&D is more cost-efficient than hiring– In their 2018 Employee Retention Report, Work Institute reported that 1 in 4 employees will leave their job and nearly 77% of that turnover could be prevented by employers. Being an entrepreneur, it is my observation too that hiring is easy, however, retaining those employees is difficult. The latter can only be done if they are provided with the best employee experience.
- A trained workforce is the strength of an organization– When the workforce is trained and equipped with modern-day technologies they serve as strength to the organization. Employee experience and satisfaction also boosts in this scenario. An IBM study found that well-trained teams increased their productivity by 10%.
- Untrained and unskilled workforce is a liability– L&D also helps employees to understand what is expected of them in the organization and how should they behave while on-premises. Lack of proper training builds this bridge between mannerism and etiquettes. Not just this, those employees who are unskilled are not able to contribute to their maximum capacity.
- High performing customer service and satisfaction– A significant impact on customer satisfaction can be seen by enabling all employees to manage and handle conversations with them effectively. In fact, there is a 16% increase in customer satisfaction with companies that are using learning technology.
- How is technology boosting L&D for organizations?– Digitalization has proven its worth and merit in a lot many significant sectors and has also replaced tedious traditional processes with interesting innovative ones. Not to forget, Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a huge role in L&D, providing learners with smarter tools.
Apart from all that is mentioned above, the most popular and widely used techniques in learning and development in recent times include:
- Personalisation – Employees and organizations can easily make personalisations in their L&D training sessions. With the world going online, what, when and how you want to teach your employees can be decided by you.
- Self-paced online training– The old module of learning in a class is gone, where you were required to make notes of everything and could not easily get extra classes for better understanding. Now, employees can complete their L&D training sessions at their own pace and in the comfort of their houses also.
- Interesting and engaging- The teaching and learning methods have been made more interesting and engaging with gamification, picturization, fun activities and much more.
It is essential that more and more organizations begin to realise the importance of L&D for their employees. G.I. Joe used to say, “Knowing is half the battle,” and once the people at the management level come across this knowledge on L&D, they must next start planning strategies to introduce this in their organizations.
Make your employees feel valued and appreciated, contribute to holistic development and growth, be the right mentor to them. Evaluate who your employees are, teenagers or serious adults, and what they want and expect form you. One thing that one must remember is that these employees are an asset to the organization, and the first advertisers. They are already working hard to make your organization a success, by providing them means of L&D you can add value to their morale behind working and help them deliver better results.
