skills in your employees

As a business owner, it’s important to invest in your employees. By offering them opportunities and fostering positive employee satisfaction, you will improve employee retention, attract more talented workers, and boost productivity. One way to invest in your employees is to focus on building their skills.

When a company works to develop the skills of their employees, the employees will, in turn, develop a sense of loyalty to the company. They will feel like their employer values them enough to offer them opportunities for self-improvement, and will be less likely to search for other jobs. This satisfaction will also drive them to work harder at their jobs and create a better brand for your company.

Research supports that investing in skill-building for your employees is beneficial to both the employer and the workers alike. A study conducted by IBM indicates that if a company is not committed to the growth of their employees, then employees are twelve times more likely to quit. 

Employee retention is incredibly important because of the high cost of employee turnover. Providing opportunities for professional development is one of the best ways to boost employee retention and drive employee satisfaction. Therefore, building skills in your employees is one of the best things you can do for your company. Here’s what you can do.

Pay For Them To Get Licenses and Certificates

In many fields, obtaining a license or certificate can be a great professional differentiation point. Funding this experience for your employees could be a great way to demonstrate that your company is committed to their professional development. For example, if you own a construction company, you might offer employees the opportunity to obtain their contractor’s license, which would expand their opportunities both within your company and in their field.

Because licenses and certificates can be so significant in an employee’s career, your workers will likely be thrilled about the opportunity to advance. In addition to your workers gaining professional experience, you will also benefit from their increased skillset as an employer. Your employees will now be qualified to take on more responsibilities, which means you could think about promotions within the company, which is key for retention and attracting talent.

Develop Teamwork and Collaborative Abilities

Developing skills in your employees does not have to mean intense studying and training. In fact, developing soft skills in your employees can be just as important. A great example of this is the importance of fostering collaboration within your employees. A collaborative environment is conducive to high employee retention and employee satisfaction, and can be achieved with a few simple actions.

Developing communication skills and collaborative spirits within your employees can be as simple as team-building activities outside of work, such as a dinner or even a special lunch break. This will enable your employees to get to know each other better, and thus, be more effective as a team. It will also make employees happier at their workplace and more committed to the company as a result.

Sponsor Attendance at Conferences

One of the best ways for professionals to grow is to attend conferences and networking events in their industry. This will grant them a better picture of the industry as a whole and will allow them to form important connections for their careers. Funding and supporting employee participation in conferences will allow them to experience their industry in a new setting and will further their loyalty to the company for providing such an experience.

Develop Leadership Skills

Another skill that is worthwhile to develop in your employees is leadership ability. Just because an employee is not serving in a managerial role does not mean that they have no use for leadership skills. If they are interested in working their way up, they will have to begin learning some of the skills to do so.

Developing leadership skills in your employees can happen in both subtle and overt ways. You can bring in speakers to talk about leadership, introduce them to leaders in the company to learn about their experiences, or slowly introduce leadership tasks into their existing roles. You can have them lead a meeting, or perhaps mentor a new hire. 

Putting in these efforts to develop leadership skills in your employees will not only make them better leaders when the time comes, but it will also allow them to envision themselves at your company long-term with the promise of bigger roles.

Communicate With Managers

The skills an employee is able to develop are largely based on their supervisor. This will be the person teaching them the job, offering feedback, and making recommendations. Because of this, it’s important that managers have a clear idea of their roles in training and overseeing employees. 

To maintain communication with the managers as the head of a company, you should check-in, ask about specific employees, and make sure your managers have a plan to address any issues or shortcomings. This will be extremely helpful in making sure your employees are learning the skills you need them to and developing at the rate you intend. 

Communication with these supervisors and managers will also strengthen your own relationship with them, which is important in its own right.

There are so many ways to develop skills in your employees and so many compelling reasons to do so. Whether you sponsor them at conferences or nudge them into new roles with new skills, your employees will be grateful for the opportunity for growth, and this satisfaction will circle back to benefit you as a business owner, in terms of productivity, loyalty, and ultimately profit.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay