In recent years, the amount of professional development offered to employees through their employer has decreased significantly. For some reason, over the last couple of decades we have noticed that providing professional development opportunities to the employees of small businesses has become something that is often overlooked as a recruitment and retention tool. However, at the Professional Development Center at Glendale Community College, we still maintain that this practice can bring small businesses more success than you can even imagine. Below you can uncover what the best small businesses know about professional development that you do not.
Make your employees crave advancement and knowledge.
When you offer professional development training to your employees, the first thing you are doing is encouraging them to strive for more. These types of classes and programs give those working for you the opportunity to learn new skills which allows them to perform better at their job. In turn, this encourages them to look for ways to grow and move up at the company. While it may seem like more time and money to invest in your employees than you are interested in, the investment will be more than worth it when everyone at your company is working to be the best of the best while using their new knowledge.
You increase collective knowledge across your team.
You know how there is always that one person who goes above and beyond to prove to you that they are using all of their time and energy to gain as much information and knowledge about your industry as possible? While it’s great to have eager beavers in the office, wouldn’t it be better if everyone working for you shared this sort of knowledge? When you have your employees participate in professional development courses that are specific to their job but also broad enough so that they can connect their everyday tasks to the industry as a whole, you are setting yourself up for success. Increasing the expertise of the overall staff will lead to greater brainstorming sessions as well as more sharing of information in general.
Your employees become more satisfied with their job.
People do not want to come to work when they feel as if they do the same thing day in and day out. Plain and simple, any job can feel beyond stagnant when there is nothing new to learn or understand. When you offer professional development courses to your employees, they are likely to take advantage of the opportunity to move their career forward, as well as make their day to day more interesting. You can also break up the monotony by allowing different departments to shadow and mentor one another. Different tasks, as well as perspectives can help to create a new feeling at work for those who have been finding themselves less than engaged during office hours.
Your company is more appealing in general.
You may think your employees will be the only ones who benefit from professional development training, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Not only will your employees talk to others about the amazing opportunities that their employee is providing to them, but your clients and potential customers will also likely catch wind of the new knowledge that is being offered to your workers by you. Getting a good reputation in the community can go an extremely long way. Don’t ever underestimate the power of word of mouth.
You are likely to attract in-demand candidates.
Even if you think you have the pick of the litter when it comes to candidates for new employees for your company, chances are there is a company that is offering professional development if you’re not. In the case that a top-notch candidate is interviewing with your company and a company that provides learning opportunities, who do you think that candidate will choose to work for? Letting an in-demand candidate know that your company is passionate about continuous improvement will likely be a key reason why they decide they would like to work with you when all is said and done.
You aid yourself in retaining your great employees.
Do you honestly think a person would want to stop working for a company that is constantly giving them the tools they need to advance in their career? Not only will your employees become more loyal to you, but they will also be fighting tooth and nail to gain promotions over others they work with. This will allow you to always be putting the most qualified people in positions of authority while also encourages those who do not get promoted that they still have the chance to move up.
Your succession plan makes itself.
Plain and simple, losing one person will not leave the company in shambles when everyone is given the same knowledge. When professional development is offered to all, that means you don’t have to worry about the entire company falling apart when one person leaves or is fired. Your succession plan slowly makes itself ? When you are offering the same knowledge to everyone and not just a handful of people at the top.
