Retain Talent By Offering Work Training

Giving employees the opportunity to learn new skills while working is one of the top ways to retain staff, according to a survey of over 750 business professionals.

Smallbusiness.co.uk reported on the study carried out by Arch Apprentices, which revealed that 73 per cent of managers believe giving employees the chance to learn new skills - whether through on-the-job training or engineering distance learning - is the best way to keep their workforce happy and productive.

Other top ways to keep workers happy were to offer promotions and pay rises, which were cited by 67 per cent and 65 per cent of respondents respectively.

Those who answered the survey also noted that their business understands the value of providing staff training, with one-third of organisations spending between £1,000 and £5,000 each year on employee training.

In addition, the majority of bosses questioned said that their company provides between five and nine days of training for workers each year.

Founder of Arch Apprentices Ben Rowland commented: “It’s really positive to see that learning new skills tops the list when it comes to keeping employees engaged, beating promotions and pay rises.”

Last month, a survey of businesses around the world suggested that more companies may want to invest in internal staff training, with just 51 per cent of those surveyed stating that their workforce has the skills required to meet the firm’s current needs.

What’s more, just 19 per cent of companies felt that their current workforce would be able to meet the business’ future needs, indicating that there could be a significant skills shortage looming if firms aren’t careful.