The Importance of Training and Development in 2024

Training and development initiatives have a direct impact on growth.

In this blog post, you'll discover seven powerful reasons why the importance of training and development programs will only increase in 2024 and beyond.

Read on to learn when each benefit applies, how it could impact your company, and even what specific training topics you can work on to favor employee development. 👇

1. Empowers employees to take on new challenges

If you can tick two or more of these boxes, investing in training and development programs should be a priority:

☐ Some of your employees resist adopting new tools, skills, or processes (such as AI)

☐ Teams need help to keep up with new tools in the organization

☐ You have powerful internal tools… but only a few know how to use them.

☐ Skill gaps are hurting your company's growth

☐ Employees currently lack career growth opportunities within the organization

A well-rounded training program can be one of the most effective ways to level up your workforce from the inside out.

Create a training and development program that helps your employees make the most of the work technology, and you'll:

1. Keep operations stable: Training employees helps streamline processes and increase productivity as your teams adjust and gain new skills and knowledge. 
2. Stop losing talent: Upskilled or reskilled employees stay with your company, helping you retain the knowledge and the talent.
3. Cut costs: Well-trained employees motivated to work for you will reduce your need for and costs with external hiring, recruitment, and onboarding.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Provide employee training sessions on developing technical skills for using new technologies, tools, or reporting processes. But don't forget training for soft skills, like effective communication, growth mindset, adaptability, flexibility, or even leadership skills.

2. Helps employees adapt to increasingly complex security

As remote work becomes more common and the use of mobile devices increases, the cyber-threat landscape is evolving faster than ever. With cybersecurity threats on the rise, compliance regulations are getting increasingly demanding too. Ultimately, it's tough for the average employee to keep up with policy.

By recognizing these industry landscape changes and how they impact your company, you provide your employees with appropriate training and help them adapt effectively.

Security training & development programs keep employees afloat of security issues:

• Knowledge is power: Security training will empower your employees to tackle the changes confidently.
• Knowledge increases openness to change: By being aware of perils, employees will become more flexible and embrace change rather than fight it.
• Knowledge helps prevention: Security training will foster a proactive approach to security issues, protecting your company's digital assets and reputation and reducing the risk of financial or operational problems.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Stay up-to-date on industry trends and look into security tools and solutions. Focus your training and development efforts on creating a company culture of security based on regulatory compliance training programs, cybersecurity awareness, and data protection training.

3. Boosts work motivation and job satisfaction

Statistics show that employees work 20% better when motivated, yet only 29% are 'very satisfied' with their current growth and career advancement opportunities.

Employees are more likely to change jobs, with millennials, in particular, being considered "the job-hopping generation." Adding in the high cost of turnover, knowing how to attract and retain top talent is critical for your company's increased productivity and profitability.

Employee training and development program will:

• Improve employee motivation: The research you do before developing training will help identify the root causes of low morale and what specific opportunities would truly increase employee engagement.
• Create a positive work environment: As you provide the training and development opportunities your employees crave, they'll feel valued and supported to grow at your company.
• Create a culture of continuous learning: Make learning and growth part of each employee's job description, and you'll fuel employee motivation and satisfaction with constant training and career advancement opportunities.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Support career advancement by introducing upskill and reskill opportunities in your training programs. Provide personal development training and resources to help employees pursue their passions or live more balanced lives.

4. Makes expectations clear and improves task management

As new technologies and processes emerge at lightspeed, the complexity makes it easy to feel overwhelmed.

Training that clarifies expectations and improves task management will help your employees settle in and perform at their best, regardless of where you hire them or where they work from.

Communications and management training brings clarity on all levels:

• Upgrade leadership skills: Training can equip leaders with techniques to provide clear direction and feedback, fostering a more transparent and supportive work environment.
• Engage your workforce: As everyone understands their roles and responsibilities from the beginning, they can transition into new tasks smoothly but also plan and prioritize their work effectively, thus becoming more productive.
• Promote better collaboration: Clear tasks reduce misunderstandings and promote better collaboration among team members and departments that work to achieve common goals.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Create employee training programs centered around communication techniques, listening skills, goal setting, task planning and prioritization, delegation techniques, and providing constructive feedback.

5. Reduces micromanagement issues

"I perform better under micromanagement," said no one ever.

At the same time, "I'm not trying to micromanage," said every micromanager ever.

Micromanagement is bad news for business. Over 79% of workers report they have experienced micromanagement at some point in their careers. The majority said it tanked their morale (68%) and made them less productive (55%). Ultimately, 36% of people have left their jobs because of a micromanager.

Leadership-oriented training that fights micromanagement benefits an organization. Here's how:

• Managers become more effective: With proper training, they can better delegate tasks, provide clear expectations, and support employees to take ownership of their work.
• Employees feel more accountable: With less management pressure, they'll feel more in charge, thrive with self-direction, and dare to innovate more often.
• Work is more enjoyable and productive: As your company promotes personal and professional growth, job satisfaction will improve, micro-management tendencies will diminish at all levels, and work will be more pleasurable and effective.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Create a leadership-oriented training program on defining measurable objectives and key results, setting clear expectations, delegating, and assessing employee capabilities. Consider offering employees training on critical thinking skills, problem-solving, decision-making, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills.

6. Better leverages employee performance review findings

Did you know companies spend $2.4-$35 million per 10,000 employees on annual reviews?

Regardless of how much you spend on performance reviews at your company, you want to make the most of these expenses and address your findings.

By acting on these findings, you'll turn expenses into growth-driving investments. So, consider setting new objectives and implementing strategies to enhance one's skills, productivity, and overall performance with the right training programs.

Training and development programs help build on strengths and prepare for the future:

• Employees increase their potential: Once they get better in areas directly aligned with their job requirements, they become more confident, happy, and effective.
• Your company increases retention: Employees who feel valued and supported to grow will be less likely to look for another job.
• Your managers will nurture leaders: Managers can use training to prepare employees for taking on higher-level roles and responsibilities, ensuring a smooth leadership transition within the company.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Develop training programs addressing specific technical, communication, and leadership skills necessary in your performance reviews.

7. Helps you be flexible and adapt to remote work

Remote work isn't even the "new" normal in 2024. It's just normal, and the best employees expect it. Organizations must be flexible enough to respond to employees' preferences in 2024 or risk losing out on top talent.

Were you forced to transition your employees to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic? So was 80% of the global workforce.

Keeping this flexibility and allowing your teams to perform remotely will only increase their satisfaction. At the same time, it'll make it easier for you to access top talent as you remove geographical barriers.

Remote work training brings companies closer to success:

• Reduce work friction: Teams learn to use the platforms and tools that make communication and task management easier.
• Reduce employee overwhelm: Training for remote work must also focus on maintaining work-life balance, helping employees to feel less overwhelmed.
• Increase efficiency and autonomy: Teaching everyone how to manage their time and be accountable for their goal-setting will enhance effectiveness and achievements.

Smart L&D moves in 2024 and beyond 🤓

Create employee training and development programs focused on remote collaboration and communication, time management and goal setting, work-life balance and well-being, and even remote leadership and team building.

Did you know? 🤔

98% of surveyed learning and development professionals think video is important for their organization's learning and development.

Create training & development programs that fuel your growth in 2024 and beyond

A company can only perform as well as its employees. Now that you know the importance of training and development and how to maximize your programs, explore your training video creation options with the AI video maker Synthesia.

Teleperformance, a global company, uses Synthesia and saves $5,000 and 5 days per training video they create. Read their story to find out how you can do the same.