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The benefits of ongoing employee development beyond retention

The equation is simple: More retention equals less onboarding costs. Investing in training and development is one of the most effective ways to reduce turnover.

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While it will always be cost-effective to optimize your onboarding process, it’s even more effective to reduce the amount of onboarding you need to do by reducing turnover with ongoing training and development. The equation is simple: More retention equals less onboarding costs.

Join us as we uncover the true importance of ongoing development, and explain how the right solutions can help your employees reach their full potential.

Increase training, reduce turnover

Investing in training and development is one of the most effective ways to reduce turnover. 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn, according to LinkedIn. The same report found that “companies that excel at internal mobility retain employees for an average of 5.4 years, nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it, where the average retention span is 2.9 years.”

What’s more, 87% of millennials rate “professional or career growth and development opportunities” as important to them in a job. This suggests that employees are happy to stay in their current job as long as they feel they’re developing new skills and fulfilling their potential—making ongoing development a powerful tool for boosting staff retention.

Happy employees = happy customers

Businesses that invest in ongoing development don’t just benefit from lower staff turnover and higher morale. They also benefit from a more knowledgeable, confident, and empowered workforce.

In turn, these happier employees are more likely to deliver better CX. As people get happier, they’re roughly 12% more productive, according to Warwick University. And happy salespeople can improve their closing rates by 37%, according to Harvard Business Review.

When you combine high levels of workplace satisfation with high levels of expertise, your CX will go from strength to strength. Naturally, more knowledgeable, well-trained employees have the expertise to help customers receive resolution faster, more frequently, and with more empathy.

In today’s landscape, this is a vital business advantage and could become a differentiator for your brand. Brands that deliver good customer experiences (CX) can boost their annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 300% over three years.

Plan ahead, set clear goals

Investing in training will help you motivate and retain employees. But measuring their progress and setting clear goals for them is just as important. With clear objectives to work towards, a clear career path, and a clear idea of where they are in their development, employees feel more fulfilled and motivated at work.

Research has shown that 87% of employees crave opportunities for growth, but less than 40% said they’d learned something new in the past 30 days. This highlights the need for employers to track progress and provide detailed feedback and guidance that helps employees understand and appreciate their purpose.

With this in mind, consider working with a partner that helps you set up measurable CX programs with clear KPIs. These should have benchmarks attached to help you and your staff gauge performance.

For example, you could measure and compare customer satisfaction averages against individual performance. Once your agents know what success looks like, they’ll have something to work towards, and a reason to log on every morning.

Learn more about how culture is the foundation for employee satisfaction and retention.

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