In the business world, the only time growth is relevant has been on a spreadsheet. Numbers, graphs, and especially revenue.
But there is another part of the growth that has been completely overlooked.
Recently, this has shown to be a bigger issue than most might see it to be. The growth of people.
Not the number of employees you have, but how the development of their work is going.
Giving better opportunities, giving better training, or even more training than what they have now.
The reason for this is, nearly 59% of employees claim they had no workplace training and that most of their skills were self-taught.
Over half of the workers surveyed didn’t have any formal training for on-the-job duties. They had to learn everything as they went using hope as their growth strategy.
Companies should invest in their employees. Not only with the initial training after the hiring process but also throughout their time inside the company.
You don’t stop watering a tree the moment you see a leaf. Why stop developing an employee the moment you see revenue generated?
There was a quote that I recently came across from Cardinal John Henry Newman that says, “Growth is the only evidence of life.”
And as I mentioned with the tree example, it is more important than ever to help employees learn.
Not only for their benefit but the companies as well. Here is why:
First off, employee retention.
Work Institute’s 2018 Retention Report stated that one in four workers leave their jobs and one-third of that turnover was due to unsupportive management and a lack of development opportunities.
Employees leave their employers for the simple reason of not having the development they need!
Taking a look at more numbers, a midsize company (1,000-9,999 employees) spends around $941 on average to train each employee.
This number looks quite large, but it came from the time invested, money spent, and salaries of the managers. Seeing this it is easy to understand why it turns out to be.
If an employee leaves the company because they weren’t invested in, the money you would spend is higher than that $1,000 mark.
A Gallup article mentions, “The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.”
If your employee had a salary of $50,000 a year, it would take between $25,000-$100,000 trying to replace and train someone new to even have a start at the new job.
This is an extreme difference, and one decision can change it all.
Are you sure you would still be willing to pay something like that?
Second, development is essential.
Employee growth and development will help both the individual and the company that is around it.
This engagement with your employees shows that the organization they work for values them.
This benefit helps retention, and it is natural to have reciprocation to engage with others in the workplace.
Engagement shows through many different ideas, but for this, we will focus on development.
Training, advancing careers, and growing leadership abilities are all a part of this.
A full 87% of millennials say professional development or career growth opportunities are very important to them in a job.
The bulk of the workforce has a high value toward this growth.
Not knowing where you can go or feeling like you are being stuck in the mud does not bring satisfaction to the individual.
To look at that satisfaction, only 29% of employees are “very satisfied.” This is toward their current career advancement opportunities available within their organization.
Finding ways to boost that number is the greatest way to benefit the work environment all around.
When you have a work environment that you feel you can thrive and grow in there would be no reason to leave.
Going back to the tree analogy, you can only grow in an environment that suits your needs.
If your employees aren’t engaged in their work, they will find somewhere else to go that will give them the care they need.
Building leaders and employee development are some of the strong suits of With Purpose.
The slogan of With Purpose is a heart for people and a mind for business is not something to gloss over.
We want to take care of and develop the people first because that is what matters.
To grow your business, you also need to grow your people. This is all possible through what With Purpose can provide you with.
Tailored to you. We help businesses grow to their needs, not a cookie-cutter because one size does not fit all.
Give us a call today to see what With Purpose can do for you!