This summer, we are getting the word out there about staff training and development.
For many businesses, it may be a quieter time when you can take the opportunity to understand how training and development can add value to your business. While if you are busier than ever during the summer, it may expose skills gaps in your business which a long-term training and development plan could fill, making future summers less stressful and more profitable.
Why offer training and development in your business?
It costs money. It takes staff away from their core work. They could just leave anyway. Why bother!
None of those three points are untrue.
However, good training and development will almost certainly deliver a return on investment that negates the first two. LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2025 is unequivocal: It found that 100% of businesses which embraced what they term “Career Development” deemed that it achieved positive business results.
And while the fact they could leave still remains, not offering training will, for many, be an extra reason to leave rather than stay. A survey by a workplace culture consultancy found that the top reason for moving on was no advancement opportunity – 43% said that.
Let’s drill a little deeper into how this can benefit you…
Employee engagement
As we have covered, training and development can have a tangible effect on retention; but with it being so desirable to employees it can have a similar positive impact at the recruitment stage. You may see advantages such as shortening recruitment time and attracting a better calibre of candidate.
It also encourages employees to bring the best version of themselves to work: motivated, keen to learn and progress.
Boosts productivity
Ultimately, everything we talk about in this blog will contribute to a productivity boost, but specifically, where you target training on identified skills gaps, it will lead to your employees being able to work more quickly, to a higher level, overcome obstacles and able to perform added value services – all key to good productivity.
Leadership development
Training and development is one of the building blocks of leadership. While some of these skills come through experience and are refined on the job, they are often complemented with training in leadership and softer skills. Techniques for emotional intelligence, time management, handling difficult conversations and conflict management to name but a few, are all things that will stand your leaders of tomorrow in good stead.
Continuity, growth and even succession planning can all be made much easier by building a motivated, loyal, knowledgeable and skilful team beneath you.
Innovation
Not only does training and development upskill your staff, but it will also get them thinking differently. They will come equipped with new ideas and approaches and may be able to apply their training to specific scenarios within your business that leads to better ways of doing things. They may even come up with entirely new products, services or processes.
CPD
In some professions, continuing professional development (CPD) is essential, and training and development is the means to this end. Online courses, workshops and attending conferences could all count.
This is particularly important where your business is impacted by regular changes such as to legislation, case law, technology or society. In instances like this, the case for training and development is as much about not falling behind as it is about advancement.
Differing approaches to training and development
Every business is different, and therefore a tailored approach to training and development is important.
For some, you may want to put standardised training in place, seeing the benefit of moulding employees in a particular way. Or you may take a more ad hoc approach, offering employee specific training based on where you see the need. A third way is to give every employee a budget and let them choose how they wish to better themselves (alongside a business case for how it will help the business, of course).
The advent of eLearning gives SME employers like you much more choice and flexibility. Rather than having to send staff to a specific location at a specific time, you can provide them with low cost access to targeted online courses they can complete at their desk at times convenient to them, with a full audit trail of what’s been completed. Check out our website for more details and the range of eLearning courses we offer.
Training and development services from The HR Dept
At The HR Dept we can be both training and development strategist and provider (or just one or the other). Our experienced consultants can guide you in how to implement training and development, and we offer a huge range of in-person and online courses. There’s something for every industry and every budget. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you.
