The Role Of Training In Employee Engagement

With the increasing challenge of modern business, maintaining an engaged workforce of skilled employees who are unquestionably skilled, experienced and knowledgeable has never been more crucial. Learning and development are taking a much greater center stage in ensuring that all of the mandatory skills and levels of expertise are always available in such an engaged workforce. The key to success with employee engagement training is to teach the appropriate skills effectively to the right people. It may be a tempting thought, during times of less economic growth or even great loss to cut corners with training and improvement of the workforce. This is a terrible idea as only through properly engaged workforces may you turn around from such economic distress. Even in the darkest times, you must nurture growth and cultivate talent. Nurturing the proper talent and skill, and promoting improvement and growth can not only build a happier, stronger workforce, but it can also address internal problems that may be the cause of your economic downturn, even if the economy’s bad across the board. It also is worth mentioning that even during these rough times, it is easier to persevere when you’re motivated and not complacent. Employees don’t want to stagnate and fall victim to routine and drudgery, ergo continued growth and learning will empower them to be optimistic, driven and able to overcome the challenges they face. They may not instinctively see it this way though, and as such, motivation and incentive may be necessary in order for them to be as receptive to the training as they need to be for it to be fully effective. To do this, you must show them the benefits and gains to be had from training, especially during times of economic duress. When being herded into training sessions, especially during stressful times, employees may feel more like livestock whose time is being wasted than apt pupils being gifted with powerful knowledge and expertise. It is entirely up to leadership to establish the obvious link between the knowledge they are gaining and the skill with which they may apply it in their work professionally. They must be shown the practical application of these new skills, and they must be made to see what problems it will solve. They may not even be aware of the problems, and as such, it is entirely up to leadership to make these visible in a non-critical way. This is challenging, and is one of the burdens of leadership that far outweighs the perks of such a position, but it must be done. It is only then, with properly motivated employees who are engaged in the learning that an engaged workforce can be maintained outside of the training as well. No matter how difficult things become, the quest for knowledge and improvement in all our lives must never be forsaken. If anything, during times of great challenge and adversity, this quest for betterment is all the more crucial to success and overcoming the challenges put before us. This is true in life, and it is true in business as well.