Employee Training and Development: The benefits and why it’s important

I recently came across a thought-provoking post for the day which said “Nothing is more urgent than understanding” by the very inspiring Indra Nooyi. Also linking the thought to one of her speeches at one of her many award ceremonies where she said, “one of the keys to success is to be a lifelong student.”

Generally, once we get a job the normal tendency is to keep at it and hold on to the job. You get on the job, you get some initial training, or are on probation for a certain period until you have learnt work on the job, and then you tend to go on autopilot. Being an ex-banker myself I have seen so many co-workers who have been doing the same job for years. Well of course depends on what our life choices are. Some of us would not like to rock the boat, or just let the job be that one aspect of life you want to keep constant while you want to focus on other variables that keep you challenged. Now we are talking about the autopilot side of the coin.

In today’s fast-paced environment with tremendous technological transformation, it is important for workplaces to provide the necessary talent management platforms to employees for training. Staff training and development could be in different forms, such as either on-the-job learning which research suggests must be continuous and repetitive to stay in the memory for a long, or training and development of soft skills and leadership. Especially with the availability of apps, chatbots, and various online learning programs workplaces will have a lot to offer. It is important for organisations to stay abreast of the available options in providing  talent management programs for employees to access and develop.

While you can never take away the impact of print media on learning and memory, it is good to have technology driven programmes to deliver high impact training. One of the many advantages of soft platforms is that they can come with the option of being available and accessible at any time for any quick references or just brush up the memory.

Staff engagement can be increased by making programs or training modules available on smartphones, apps, or other useful media. It can help revise before those classroom sessions. Also, the required skill set to perform a job can be made available online with demos and examples of how to deliver. This would not only increase the quality of output of employees but also make your organisation an employee-friendly user-friendly workplace. Remember it will also contribute to those pull factors that make talented employees sticky.

Also, it is an effective way to track employee programs from those 1-2-1 meetings' points of view. You can inculcate HR software (Human Resource software) for tracking the updates of each employee on regular basis. It is a good scientific way to monitor progress and give that push were necessary to employees who are struggling. Also, the new phenomenon of assistive technology for people with learning disabilities is a great way to bring them into mainstream performance objectives.

Most of all technology driven learning can support the desire to be a lifelong student where you are not standing still. Training can be accessed anywhere anytime.