The success of a business can rise and fall on how management chooses to train and engage their employees. When employees feel confident in their ability to do their job well, empowered, engaged, and included, everyone thrives, and the business prospers.

Chick-fil-A® places a high priority on training their employees and encouraging them to offer input. They employ people from the age of fifteen through retirement age. This wide span of generations presents some challenges when providing training resources and engagement. Training and engaging a millennial and a senior adult requires creativity, but Chick-fil-A has proven this to be both doable and profitable.

In a recent article from CSP.com, 4 LESSONS IN EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT, COURTESY OF CHICK-FIL-A, the author explains how the Chick-fil-A business model perfectly pairs the importance of the relationship between the customer’s experience and employee engagement.

“Which comes first… employee training or employee engagement?”

A strong argument presents that adequate training is the catalyst for achieving employee engagement and long-term growth. Simply stated, the answer to the burning question of which comes first is that training must come before achieving employee engagement.

Realizing that no two businesses are alike and understanding the importance of a successful employee support strategy, let’s take a look at a few factors that illustrate the vital relationship between proper employee training and the power of engagement.

Consider that the relationship between effective training and employee engagement is:

  • Vital to the growth of your company
  • Critical to employee satisfaction and retention
  • A long-term game

So, you’ve got a fully motivated workforce of employees who love their jobs and work hard to help you achieve your organizational objectives. Go you! You can stop reading this and go back to enjoying the vibrant and stimulating culture that’s made you so successful! However, if Gallup’s research is anything to go by, you’re more likely to be plagued by retention problems, stunted growth, and employees with no sense of purpose. The issue of employee engagement has been one of the trickiest riddles in business for years. Sadly, it’s an issue that’s more often swept under the carpet and even ignored at the highest levels. (elearningindustry.com)

Effectively training staff to fulfill their job responsibilities with a high level of confidence indicates that their superiors value them both as individuals and participants in the growth and development of the company.

Engaging employees to collaborate in brainstorming by offering surveys and allowing them to take part in implementing new ideas communicates to them they have a voice, and that management listens. Effectively training your employees produces fully engaged employees, which yields higher employee performance, providing satisfied customers, which results in a profitable business outcome. Chick-fil-A demonstrates this business model, and it seems to be working out quite well for them.