Organizations that fail to consider ways to improve employee retention ignore one of the most significant impacts on their bottom line. According to Gallup, U.S. businesses lose a trillion dollars a year due to voluntary employee turnover. The cost of replacing employees is staggering. Organizations not only lose the investment they have already made in an individual, they must incur the costs associated with recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training a new employee. The cost of online training alone can be up to twice an employee’s annual salary.
The worst part is that employee turnover is highly preventable. It is impossible to keep every employee. Some decide to leave the workforce or pursue significantly different career paths while some employees should not have been hired in the first place. However, with the vast majority of departures, a high-quality employee could have been retained with some minor adjustments to company culture. The most significant change comes down to one thing: training.
Employee Retention Is Not Always About the Money
Many employers believe that people leave when they find a better-paying opportunity. However, compensation is not a factor that causes most employees to seek work elsewhere. The opportunity to learn and grow is a far more significant issue for employees that leave to take positions in other organizations. This means that companies may be able to increase employee retention, keep valuable employees, and save the expense of continual recruitment and onboarding by offering better training opportunities to current employees.
Even better, technology has now made it easier than ever to offer employees what they need to learn, grow, and feel empowered in their positions. Training used to be far more expensive and disruptive. It often meant bringing in instructors and pausing operations. Or, it meant sending staff away for training, often losing days of productivity in the process. But now, with the availability of quality, accessible e-learning solutions, online training is feasible, and the costs and disruptions are far less.
Improving the Online Training Experience
Not only is e-learning less of a financial and time burden on employers, it is also more effective than older models in improving employee retention and boosting the workforce’s overall competency. E-learning offers a more consistent baseline training experience and allows instructors to offer a deeper dive into material or mentoring when there are opportunities for in-person training.
With e-learning, organizations can also provide training at a faster pace and provide data to regularly improve the training program. It is even more attractive to the latest generation of employees entering the workforce who are more accustomed to self-directed and self-paced online learning opportunities.
Increasing Competency
Online training can make a significant impact on employee retention, but it offers far more than that. Retaining employees is about providing opportunities for learning, growth, and development. That same learning, growth, and development also offers massive value to the company. Well-trained employees are more confident, and confident employees are happier, more secure, and feel they are contributing.
Online training increases the overall competency of the workforce. The organization has happier, more engaged employees and is continually raising the bar of employees’ ability to do their jobs.
With as much as companies spend on their labor force, it is surprising how little is invested in making them better, smarter, and more productive. According to the 2018 Deloitte Human Capital Trends Study, more than half of employers surveyed (54 percent) said they have no programs in place to build the skills of the future. And only 18 percent of respondents feel they give employees the ability to actively develop themselves and chart pathways for their careers.
Flexibility and Learning Paths
E-Learning’s flexibility means that learning paths can be designed around the training and development needs of individual employees. There is no longer a need for “one-size fits all” training programs. Instead, custom tracks can offer the specific training needed to improve employee competency based on roles and responsibilities.
With the right Learning Management System (LMS), the process can be automated with pre-programmed triggers that help employees select the proper training for their stage and role while giving them the autonomy to choose their own pace and training times. The LMS can even help them develop beyond their roles and choose training to help them learn, grow, and further their career.
The right LMS can also take care of all the tracking and help you add rewards, badges, and gamification to your program to keep employees engaged in their growing development.
How Elearning Delta Can Help with Online Training
Are you ready to learn more about how online training can help you improve retention rates and raise your workforce’s overall level of competency? Elearning Delta’s team of experts can help you understand the best way to approach e-learning in your organization and help you choose the right platform to achieve your goals.
