Tip of the day…
If you conduct employee engagement surveys and ask your employees to spend time honestly completing the survey, as an employer you must thank your employees for taking the survey and communicate to them what actions you will and will not implement from their suggestions. If you do not recognize your employees and their comments, you run the risk of having your employees never complete an engagement survey honestly again.
The High and Profitable Cost of Employee Training
According to the American Society of Training and Development, organizations spent $156.2 billion on learning and development in 2011. This statistic clearly indicates that employee training can drastically impact a company’s success among other factors. In this day and age when technology is on the rise and workplace dynamics are changing, training is a high necessity, as are finding the funds to cover it.
Training is crucial because it not only benefits organizations, but also enhances overall employee performance. According to Ferdinand Fournies, an internationally known consultant, author, and former professor at Columbia University’s School of Business, employee performance issues occur because employees: 1) are unaware of what they’re supposed to do 2) are unsure how to do it 3) are unsure why they should do it.
Other benefits of training include:
- Saving money and labor: Skilled employees may contribute to a decrease in maintenance expenditures, minimal supervision, lower turnover rates, and valuable time that may be used elsewhere (e.g. spending time on correcting others’ mistakes).
- Guaranteeing an organization’s competitive edge in the market: Employees must be updated on skills in regards to the ever-changing workforce and market. Employees are important assets to organizations and if training efforts are not invested to enhance their skills, companies may see a spiraling downturn in profits.
- Employee retention and/or satisfaction: The more effort management puts forth in their employees, the more opportunities their workforce has in career advancements and overall personal growth.
- Increased customer satisfaction: With increased skills comes better quality of work, which in turn means higher quality of services and/or products—these factors decrease customer complaint rates.
From an article in Workforce Management in 2006 detailing the training costs and efforts of the popular restaurant chain, The Cheesecake Factory, the organization spends approximately $2,000 on training per hourly employee each year. The chain takes their training seriously and involves all their employees: servers are enrolled in two weeks of on-the-job training; those seeking managerial positions receive 12-week development courses; dishwashers are also included in training programs. The Cheesecake Factory finds training to be beneficial as their turnover rate is approximately 15 percent below the industry average of 106 percent.
An important question to consider is: how does one pay for all the training expenditures? The Employment Training Panel (ETP) is a California State job funding agency created to assist organizations (only in CA) in finding the means to train their workforce. This fiscal year, ETP has up to 80 million dollars solely for training purposes with priority industries in technology, manufacturing, biotechnology, and agriculture to name a few. Not in California? No worries; grants and scholarships can be found in various state programs as well.
Training is essential for organizations, large and small. How much will your company invest in training efforts this year?
*e-VentExe is a full service human resource consulting firm located in Northern California. Our expert consultants can assist you with any training needs and assist you with finding funds for training. Give us a call at 916.458.5820 to learn more about how we can help you get on board with your training!
Exemplifying Employee Engagement
Organizations strive largely because of their employees. But what happens when your employees are disengaged? According to the 2013 State of the American Workplace Report, 70 percent of American workers are dissatisfied with their job, creating an atmosphere where many employees feel emotionally disconnected from their workplace and therefore less productive.
Employee engagement is both a psychological and social phenomenon—as humans, we need to feel accepted and feel a sense of belonging whether in or outside of the workplace. Employees’ needs and viewpoints should be accepted and recognized; without this communication and connection, employees may feel worthless or question their stay at the workplace. This is where most upper management fails.
Dr. Brad Shuck at the University of Louisville, an expert in employee engagement research, states that managers were “promoted into positions with responsibilities they were not ready for” and rather than knowing how projects were getting done, they cared only on how much could get done. Let’s take for example, J. C. Penney’s former CEO Ron Johnson. Prior to joining J.C. Penny, Johnson was seen as the genius Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple. However, during his reign at J.C. Penney, sales dropped 27 percent (Forbes). Johnson, who transformed J.C Penney immediately, terminated the entire top executive team. In doing so, Johnson created an entirely new environment for the current employees, who now must not only learn the new company culture, but also build trust and the emotional connection with their new leadership. Johnson merely assumed he could transform J.C. Penney successfully based on his past accomplishments at Apple. However, he not only caused the retail chain to plummet, he did not take into consideration the views of the current employees.
According to Kevin Kruse, a New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, and speaker, the secret to employee engagement stems from the relationships front line managers have with their direct reports, therefore improvements can be made effectively if these front line managers are given their team’s engagement surveys. In order for employee engagement to increase in organizations, a grassroots approach is necessary because top executives usually do not work or rarely know their subordinates on an emotional level.
Top management must be able to strategize, create, and determine an employee engagement plan that is suitable for their company, taking into account company size and culture. Employees should feel they are part of an organization that values them, and not merely seen as another body sitting in the office or driving a forklift or serving customers. Employee goals and insights for working at an organization should be acknowledged. Trust, communication, and employee recognition for all parties should be taken into consideration for optimal employee engagement. After all, a productive and motivated workforce calls for increased business profitability.
*e-VentExe is a full service human resource consulting firm located in Northern California. We offer an array of assessment tools that may help with employee engagement or other HR needs.
Free Workshop on Leave of Absences in California
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The Human Balance 