Employee Training and Development: A Complete Guide

An organization's ability to maintain its competitive edge and foster sustainable growth requires a strong, well-prepared workforce. The individual employees who make up that workforce need sufficient training and support to learn the duties of their current roles and feel comfortable in their ability to perform their jobs. But to ensure the lasting success of both the business and those individuals alike, companies must provide ongoing opportunities for their teams to learn new skills and develop professionally. 

While building and managing a robust training and development program may seem like a hefty investment, the right process can pay dividends. 76% of employees will stay with a company longer if they offer continuous training. But empowering employees not only increases retention, it boosts employee engagement, improves succession planning, and creates impactful career paths — all of which contribute to organizational success. 

To build a strong training program (or refine your existing program for greater results), you’ll first need a thorough understanding of what’s needed to ensure success. Here, we’ll discuss current trends for keeping your program up-to-date, how to create a process that brings longevity to your company’s efforts, and how the right tools can support continual, ongoing training and development for truly scalable and sustainable growth. 

In This Article

What is Employee Training and Development? 

Employee training and development refers to two distinct elements of educating workers to help them perform better in their roles and build upon their existing skill sets. Training, which is the process of sharing information about a specific topic, might include teaching employees how to use a new software or workflow. By nature, training is typically shorter and time-bound with definite start and end points. 

Development, often referred to as Learning and Development (L&D), is an ongoing process through which employees can grow and fine-tune their skills, learn new skills, and develop professionally over time. By supporting continual learning and development, a business can help its employees excel in their current positions and establish a clear internal career path, which can — in turn — improve both short- and long-term retention. 

Well-structured and consistently updated training programs and mentorship opportunities, that are supported by a company culture that fosters growth can all contribute to strong employee development. 

The Importance of Training and Development

Today’s modern professionals understand the unmatched value of honing their skills and acquiring new professional talents. Competitive organizations have realized that employee training and development doesn’t just behoove the individual employees, it’s also advantageous to the company and its customers or clients. 

At a basic level, employees want to feel comfortable, prepared, and knowledgeable in their roles. Providing employees with the training they need to succeed should be the baseline for cultivating a positive culture, yet less than half of organizations have a learning and development strategy.  

Investing in employees leads to higher levels of employee engagement. Since companies with strong employee engagement see 43% less turnover and 23% greater profitability, building and managing effective training programs as part of a holistic retention strategy is well worth the effort. 

These processes also better prepare employees to step into new roles, which enables seamless internal promotions and highly impactful succession planning. When executed properly, training programs also optimize recruiting, as 48% of employees factor in training opportunities when choosing their next role. 

A highly skilled workforce is better able to fill open positions, saving recruiting, hiring, and onboarding costs since hiring internally is cheaper than doing so externally. Engaged, well-trained employees also create a work environment that’s safer and more compliant, saving companies precious time and money that may otherwise be compromised by workplace incidents and legal issues. 

Ultimately, skilled workers consistently and continually trained to perform at the highest level possible means a more efficient operation and positive outcomes for clients and customers. 

Examples of Training and Development 

Effective training and development go far beyond initial onboarding sessions or one-off coaching opportunities. While the individual training program should be unique to your business and the industry in which it operates, there are a few examples to examine when getting started. 

Examples of Companies Getting Development Right 

Here are some real-world businesses that have mastered employee training and development:

• Google - The Googler Review and Development (GRAD) program emphasizes learning and career progression for its employees. They used employee feedback, industry best practices, and deep research to develop a program that helps their workforce continually build upon their skill sets and achieve internal mobility at the company. 

• AXA - AXA has committed to upskilling and reskilling their workforce with both on-site and virtual opportunities to fine-tune their expertise, adapt to ever-changing factors, and find new internal roles that suit their knowledge and preferences. By doing so, they’ve transformed their culture and improved internal mobility, sourcing, and the end-to-end talent management process. 

• Amazon - To ensure their employees have access to skills that are necessary for professional development, Amazon has pledged $1.2 billion to provide free education and training opportunities for 300,000 employees. 

• Kuehne+Nagel - Because they know their strong company standing relies on their employees’ skills and knowledge, Kuehne+Nagel has a whole ecosystem of trainers, facilitators, and experts who conduct both formal and informal training sessions for their workforce. They also have an online learning platform that’s available on-demand for employees, which helps promote a culture of self-learning and improvement. 

These companies demonstrate what successful employee training and development looks like, but what are some of the methods businesses can use to accomplish their development goals?

Examples of Training and Development Methods 

There are many different types of employee training. Some common methods include:

• In-person training - Because it requires both trainers and trainees to be physically present in the same location, in-person training is a great option for topics that require hands-on learning. This method is effective because it fosters human connection between participants, enables real-time feedback, and reduces potential distractions. 

• Virtual training - In the past several years, virtual training has become increasingly popular among companies with a remote or hybrid workforce. This approach can include thorough online courses or microlearning, which offers smaller, shorter training sessions that employees can review at their individual convenience. 

• Mentoring and coaching - Meaningful mentorships and coaching sessions help employees build strong 1-1 relationships, bolster workers’ commitment to their teams, and improve the skills of everyone involved. A strong partnership can yield measurable results that benefit mentors and mentees alike. 

• Internal gigs - Some companies use intelligent tools that help managers quickly create and share short- or long-term projects with employees who are well-equipped to execute them. Using AI, organizations can easily upskill, reskill, and engage their workforce with gigs that spark their interest and help them further develop their preferred skills. 

Training and Development Trends

If you’re looking to attract and retain top talent, it’s in your best interest to stay on top of the training and development trends that contribute to a best-in-class program. Some of the biggest trends for 2024 include:

Leadership Development 

While leadership learning and training can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of daily responsibilities, successful organizations have taken note of the importance of online development experiences for leadership roles. Some have invested in programs and tools that personalize development opportunities and offer continuous skill reinforcement to better engage and communicate with their stakeholders and teams. 

A mix of several methods has eclipsed the singular, self-service virtual learning approach that leadership has taken over the last few years, as variety in content delivery offers greater access and flexibility. 

Digital and E-learning

Employees are busier than ever, so ensuring customized, flexible training opportunities is a must for getting the most out of L&D investments. Digital training and e-learning modules allow employees to develop their unique skills on their own, as they can easily access content regardless of where they’re located. They can choose their areas of interest and select the training that applies to their current roles and preferred topics, so learning becomes an effective, efficient part of their professional lives. 

AI-supported Learning 

Companies have started using AI for a whole host of initiatives, and employee training and development is no exception. AI-backed tools help workers match their skills with appropriate content to upskill, reskill, and discover new areas of professional interest. Plus, AI can even help managers track and manage their team members’ skills and automatically match them with relevant projects — which boosts productivity, engagement, and output. 

Learning and Development Personalization 

When it comes to sufficient training and development, one-size-fits-all isn’t the answer. Creating tailored learning journeys for employees makes all the difference in terms of engagement, development, and outcomes. Forward-thinking companies have leveraged platforms that make it easy for employees to identify their preferred career path, which helps them understand how their learning activity impacts their ability to advance. This level of personalized learning tied to their career aspirations gets them more engaged in developing new skills.

Hard and Soft Skills 

Developing well-rounded employees in today’s hyper-competitive global landscape requires the calibration of both hard and soft skills. By offering a wide variety of learning content, methods, mediums, and tools for support, companies can better empower their workforce to acquire and master both job-specific expertise and interpersonal skills. This also helps employers demonstrate that they care about the success of their employees in more than just their current roles. 

The Employee Training and Development Process

While the specifics of a training and development program may vary greatly, the broader process can be broken down into four steps:

1. Assess needs - The first step in building a process is to identify the training needs of your company’s employees. While this step might seem like a wild goose chase, you can hammer down the particular gaps in skill sets by requesting detailed feedback from employees, teams, and departments. Certain technologies — like workforce intelligence tools — can make this step much easier, as they offer deep insights into where your employees may be falling short. 

2. Create a plan - Whether you have a training and development program you’re looking to improve or need to build one from scratch, you’ll need to create an actionable plan for how to provide training to your teams. A significant consideration for this plan should be the types of learners within your organization, so be sure to assess exactly how your training will suit each individual. One way to accomplish this is by creating a talent marketplace, which can boost visibility into your existing team’s skills. This is especially true if your marketplace is supported by AI and machine learning for a complete picture of recommended learning based on each individual’s preferences, desired career path, and more. 

3. Deliver training - Employee training content is only helpful if it’s relevant to the receiver. It’s essential to build the right content and use sophisticated tools to deliver that content to the right person at the right time. Make sure your platform can recommend and deliver the appropriate resources to each employee based on their uniquely tailored career paths. The right technology will offer managers deep insights into employees’ learning progress to easily identify opportunities for additional training. 

4. Measure progress and success - To fully support your employees’ professional development, your team needs reliable ways to track and measure their progress as they complete their training. Plus, you’ll need tools that help you identify exactly how your existing resources impact your workforce’s success — so don’t forget to nail down your key metrics. Qualitative tools (like anonymous feedback channels) and quantitative tools (like performance metrics, training follow-up surveys, and career path data) can help leadership gain insights into what’s working, what’s not, and how your L&D efforts are impacting your employee pool. 

Training and Development Challenges

Though crucial to the success of individual employees and your organization as a whole, creating and managing a training and development program that yields positive results is often a difficult feat. Without the right foundation and tools, businesses frequently struggle with:

1. Providing Personalized Training 

Too often, companies take a generalized approach to employee training. However, these types of programs fail to engage employees or provide them with the nuanced, distinct training they need to thrive in their own roles and career paths. Outdated training strategies and lackluster tools simply can’t deliver personalized development content at scale without compromising productivity, efficiency, and output. 

Modern training processes (supported by intelligent tools) are fully customized to address employee skill gaps and individual career goals and fit into the learner’s schedule. They forgo the cookie-cutter training approach of the past in favor of a personalized experience that boosts employee engagement and empowers workers to achieve their goals. 

2. Supporting Training with Data

If you lack data-driven workforce insights, you may be left scratching your head when trying to identify your employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Determining the specific training they’ll need to succeed in their roles and grow their careers might feel like a total mystery. 

Effective training and development programs are data-backed to take the guesswork out of the equation. Robust tools can help your team understand the exact needs of each employee and provide the right training and the right time for optimal results. Instead of trying to piece together disconnected data from multiple sources, the right tool pulls everything together in a single, unified space — which turns complex, unstructured data into real-time insights for strong decision making on the fly.  

3. Offering Continual Training

Sure, onboarding is important. But far too often, companies fail to provide the type of continual training employees need to reach their full potential. As your company and customers evolve, your products and services grow, and your needs change, failure to offer consistent L&D opportunities can hinder the success of your workforce and your operation as a whole.

Whether it’s upskilling, reskilling, helping employees develop in their roles, or guiding them to step into an entirely new position, training needs to be an ongoing, meaningful initiative. Rather than fulfilling a training requirement to check a box, transform your employee training and development program into an engaging, dynamic, and effective part of the employee experience. 

Take Your Employee Training and Development to the Next Level 

Developing your team can either be a perfunctory, erratic obligation that lacks impact or a unique differentiator within your organization. Despite potential challenges, building an effective program is well worth the effort, as the right processes can boost retention, improve productivity and performance, and increase employee engagement.

Phenom supports employee training and development with powerful tools that engage your employees with personalized learning experiences that help them grow their skills. With tailored content recommendations, intelligent gig matching, and customized growth opportunities, Phenom can help your employees bolster their agility and confidence. Plus, managers gain insights into the data they need to make smarter decisions, and HR gets a holistic view of the skills their organization has and needs. 

Learn more about how to empower your employees to take charge of their careers, or book a demo today.