What is the Importance of Employee Development and Training?

The job market may be difficult for candidates right now, but that doesn’t mean they are lowering their standards. Jobseekers still want to land roles where they feel valued and can see the potential for personal and professional growth. And that means they want to know what sort of employee training and development is on offer.

There really isn’t much of a downside when it comes to employee training and development. It’s a two-pronged investment; by helping an employee build better skills, you’re giving them the tools they need to produce better results for your charity. Buzzwords like ‘retention,’ and ‘productivity’ are used to reassure employers that training is worth the cost; but what does training mean to candidates?

Does the promise of development actually make a difference, or is it still all about the salary? And does showcasing your commitment to the development of your employees help you attract stronger candidates?

Setting your staff up for success

When we talk about employee training and development, we don’t just mean sending your staff on courses or to conferences. In fact, training starts from the very first day with onboarding and induction—here you educate new hires on how your organisation works and give them the tools they need to be successful in their new role. The onboarding process is a crucial part of any employee’s journey.

As a significant proportion of charity roles are now remote, this could mean a remote induction too. Starting at a new place can be daunting, let alone if you’re working from home, so being able to access effective and efficient onboarding materials is paramount. There are some brilliant online tools available that can help you with remote onboarding. Platforms like Cezanne HR are designed specifically for charities and allow you to onboard employees as well as manage all your HR requests.

Whether in house or remote, if you’re looking to get a new employee up to speed on the fundamentals of how the charity sector operates, howcharitieswork.com has some great information on how charities run. Wherever they’re based, making sure new employees’ training is taken care of will go a long way in alleviating their initial worries and anxieties.

Show employees they’re valued and secure

Training and development costs time and money, and your employees know that. They realise that it is an investment not only in the organisation but in them too. It’s the most obvious and clear-cut indication that you as an employer believe in their abilities and potential. You hired them for a reason.

A huge 94% of employees said they would stay longer at a company if it invested in their learning and development. If you treat an employee like they’re disposable, they will leave sooner or later—it’s as simple as that. The job-seeking process is just as exhausting as recruitment. Candidates want to know that when they join your team, they’re in it for the long-haul.

Now, more than ever, jobseekers want roles that can support them and nurture their development and career progression. And one of the benefits of training employees is that you highlight your desire to help them grow in their career, and create a stronger sense of security by showing them that you want them to stick around.

Help create a happy work environment 

No one enjoys being bad at their job. We’ve all been there at one point though: drowning in emails, making mistakes because we’re overworked and stressed, snapping at our managers because we don’t understand the task at hand…the list goes on.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed at work, especially as the pressure on charities grows, and existing employees may need to take on new responsibilities. Candidates want to know that no matter what happens, you’ll have their back and provide the training they need to make a success of their role. Above all, they just want to know they’ll be happy in their job. If they feel unsupported and undertrained, they’ll be looking for new roles within their first month.

Don’t forget—recruitment is more expensive than training! When times are hard and you may have to offer a lower salary, or pay rise, than you’d like, employee training and development is something you can negotiate on. And the training itself doesn’t have to be expensive – it can be done on a tight budget if needed. So, invest in happiness and job satisfaction as much as you invest in performance, because it will benefit you in the long run.

Employees want to know you’re committed to change 

Employee training and development are sometimes introduced in response to wider changes, issues or discussions within the sector, and it’s important that organisations take part to stay relevant.

For instance, diversity and unconscious bias training has been encouraged widely across the charity sector to tackle endemic discrimination. These developments are important and necessary to dismantle institutional inequality and grow as an organisation.

Candidates want to know that you are actively responding to current issues within the sector. Training isn’t a quick fix, though. This isn’t about virtue signalling or ticking boxes for the sake of it. Candidates, and existing employees, want to see a genuine commitment to change—especially when it comes to diversity training.

Showcase your commitment to your team

From the job advert to the interview, the tone of your recruitment process counts. Candidates see far more than you think and can get a feel for the work environment from just a few words. So, shout about how you’re going to invest in them. Tell them throughout the process the different ways in which you can help them grow and develop their career further.

Don’t treat recruitment as a one-way street. You have to sell yourself too—it’s not all up to the candidate. Often, the best candidates are caught between offers and will pick their chosen role based on those interactions. So, tell them about all the amazing employee training and development programmes you offer, because they’ll remember it when they find themselves stuck between job offers. And you don’t want to miss out on top talent.

Need extra help with recruitment? Post a job on CharityJob and start connecting with top talent.

This post was originally published by the author in 2020. It’s been fully updated by CharityJob to ensure relevance and to reflect the current recruitment landscape.