Investing in learning and development is usually a profitable investment if implemented effectively. Having a training program that aligns with your company’s objectives and allows your employees and business to develop should be a priority.
The cost of training can make businesses apprehensive. However, if properly measured, the value it can provide makes it an essential element within any budget.
Some of the financial benefits include:
- Lower turnover and higher retention: If employees feel challenged and see the opportunity for progression and are invested in the company, then retention rates should increase. One study reports replacing workers who earn $75,000 or less costs roughly 20% of their salary. That would mean replacing someone who earns $75,000 would cost $15,000 to the company.
- Improved industry knowledge and performance: Being perceived as an industry leader within your network is a way to gain a larger and more notable clientele. Having employees with a wider and evolving skillset also results in less need for external hires, who often come with a larger price tag.
- Employee satisfaction and brand credibility: Having satisfied employees not only increases retention but improves your brand’s credibility and strength as an employer. Your employees offer word of mouth reviews of your company—as their performance, skillset, and satisfaction rise, your company’s reputation grows.
- Comprehensive training plan: If you are invested in learning and development, you will create a training plan. Having a comprehensive and well-thought-out training plan means you are less likely to miss any essential training for your industry or important courses that advise on proper codes of conduct, such as occupational health and safety classes. If your staff is trained to handle misconduct or hazardous situations within the workplace, this would less likely lead to any situations that put your employees or business in high-risk situations.
Investing in retention
Many companies invest in employee retention strategies, with initiatives to entice employees to increase their brand loyalty. Making employees feel valued, offering challenges and providing opportunities for them to develop their careers are the key ways to increase employee retention. Employee benefits are costly, but with Google handing out bicycles and daily free lunches for its employees, standards have been set high. Investing in eLearning training is an affordable and convenient strategy to retain employees and build internal expertise—meaning you can avoid having to take the more expensive road of hiring externally.
Let’s compare: The cost of employee benefits
Many employers invest in corporate perks in the hope of increasing retention. While these initiatives prove lucrative, they offer less value to both employees and the business than investing in learning and development.
For fun, we decided to compare the costs of some, now popular, corporate perks with our own training subscriptions.
Let’s compare: Costs of traditional training and online training
Most eLearning platforms require a subscription and as they can be operated remotely, there is a lot of transparency on costs involved in traditional training.
When assessing the cost of your traditional training, it’s important to also include the costs of:
- Travel & accommodation
- Trainer/instructor
- Training materials & equipment
- Administration
- Training facility
Other potential training costs associated with in-class learning include insurance and the cost of employees being out of office, to name a few.
With in-class corporate training, you can expect approximately up to 4 times the cost of e-learning training.
Benefits of Learning Management Systems
By choosing eLearning training for your company, you and your team get higher value from various benefits, including:
- Flexibility in scheduling online study
- Greater autonomy for employees
- Tailored learning to specialize skills
- Opportunity to develop a more holistic training plan
- More affordable training options
- Agility with the development of training plans
- Track and measure your team’s online training progress
- Ability to adapt individual online training course content development as needed
Why should you invest in Learning Management Systems?
A 2018 online training industry report found that while training expenditures have decreased from $1,075 to $986 per user, investment in learning management systems had increased by 6% from the previous year. 82% of the organizations surveyed were doing at least some type of online training, and 28% were entirely dedicated to online training.
While companies are investing less funds into training staff, they provided the same number of training hours. Finding cost-effective ways to invest in employees learning and development will allow you to meet targets without busting your budget.
