When was the last time your staff had professional training? Concerningly, nearly 59% of employees haven’t had any workplace training and nearly 50% of managers with over ten years of experience claim they’ve only received a total of nine hours of training.

Whilst the unpredictable world that we’ve been living in for the last two years has meant that the majority of companies have had to put training on pause, it’s vital not to delay staff development any longer than is absolutely necessary.

In today’s article, we explore 4 undeniable reasons why companies need to make time for training in the new world.

Reason 1: Competitive Advantage

For many companies, training budgets are the first to be cut when times are difficult. However, it is argued that training should remain one of companies’ top priorities as it can give them a huge competitive advantage.

Particularly in this new world, giving your staff the skills they need to excel in their role is vital. However, 3/4 of employees feel they aren’t reaching their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities, so making staff training a top priority is an easy way of becoming one of the top 26% of truly effective companies, setting you right on the path to getting ahead of your competitors. In fact, companies who invest in training have a 24% higher profit margin!

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Reason 2: Team Alignment and Cohesion

Training not only improves individuals’ performance, it also takes the whole team to a new level of productivity by ensuring that everyone has all of the skills and knowledge they need. Currently, an unbelievable high 70% of employees believe they lack the skills needed to do their job.

Having a standardised development programme is vital for making sure the whole team is on the same page and at the same level of skills and knowledge. This is crucial for making sure that the entire team’s skills are up-to-date, enabling them to work better together to achieve outstanding results.

Reason 3: Motivation and Engagement

Did you know that even though 87% of millennials agree that learning and development in the workplace is important, only 29% of employees are "very satisfied" with the current development opportunities available within their organisation?

Providing training and development opportunities is essential to having a motivated and engaged team - the statistics speak for themselves:

• Companies with a strong learning culture have a 30-50% higher retention rate.
• More than £500 billion is lost every year due to employee disengagement. 
• Only 13% of employees worldwide are truly engaged.
• 3 in 4 employees think they have a lot of untapped potential and want more training.
• 93% of employees said that well-planned employee training programmes positively affect their level of engagement.

Reason 4: New Skills Demand Post-pandemic

Prior to the pandemic, many companies had training plans in place for their staff, but many of these plans haven’t been revisited since. Coming out of the pandemic and into a new world of work has highlighted new skills gaps and, unsurprisingly, 1 in 3 employees say their organisation’s training is out-of-date and 70% believe they lack the skills needed to do their job.

Two of the main areas of business that have been affected and changed by the pandemic are Sales and Customer Service, with more teams working remotely than ever. With remote working comes a whole host of potential challenges, particularly the lack of oversight that leaders have of their staff. When left to their own accord, employees are more likely to choose the easy way rather than the right way and in such a competitive market, this can have a detrimental impact on companies. The lack of visibility of how teams communicate with customers, manage their time, and generally operate on a day-to-day basis means that it’s more important now than ever for sales and customer service staff to be confident, independent, and to have all of the skills they need to succeed in their role. 

A great way to give your employees this confidence and the skills they need is to put your sales and customer service staff through a professional training programme, rather than letting these bad habits manifest and putting your organisation at risk. 

Looking to Train Your Sales or Customer Service Staff?

If you’re looking to train your customer-facing staff, have you seen our funded apprenticeships? We currently offer 5 apprenticeships, including:

• Level 4 Sales Executive 
• Level 3 Customer Service Specialist

These accredited programmes are designed to provide new hires, existing staff, or untrained employees with practical skills and up-to-date, relevant knowledge. They can be delivered face-to-face, virtually, or a combination of the two, and are 95% funded by the ESFA, meaning that your company only pays a small 5% contribution towards the cost of the programme.

We are only taking on one more group for our sales and customer service apprenticeships until 2022 so if this is something that you’re interested in, get in touch with us today by requesting a call here, calling 01332 527 905, or emailing enquiries@ninedots.co.uk

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Until next time...