Investing in Professional Development – Benefits for Everyone

Professional development refers to any training or educational initiatives used to learn new skills, stay up to date in a fast-changing work world, and make career advancements. Certainly, workers with professional development are more likely to get promotions and higher salaries. But often, it is the first thing companies cut when the budget is tight because the value of investing in professional development isn’t immediately obvious. 

Four Benefits

There are four direct benefits to a company that invests in professional development:

1. Increases retention – Investing in workers shows a long-term commitment from the company.
2. Makes succession planning easier – Allows you to identify future leaders for your company.
3. Better recruitment – Attracts top talent, as today 87% of Millennials care most about professional development when considering a job.
4. Contributes to a positive company image – Workers see your company as one that cares about its people, and they’ll be good promoters of your workplace. The public sees that you are current, they receive exceptional service from your highly trained workers, and they will come to think of your company as ‘the best’ in the industry. 

Five Ways Professional Development Benefits the Employer and the Employee

But it doesn’t stop there. Here are five ways in which professional development benefits both the company AND its employees:

1. New skills and knowledge – The professional world is rapidly changing with new technologies. Both new and experienced workers need to stay current.
2. Improves efficiency/production – Companies that invest in professional development show a 24% higher profit margin compared to companies that don’t invest. 
3. Happy workers – Workers are more confident in their abilities, and the new skills they learned could ignite some creativity and make them feel more engaged at work. 
4. Provides networking opportunities – Interacting with others in your industry can lead to opportunities in the future. 
5. Increases customer satisfaction – Customers will experience high-quality products and service from your company, and your workers will feel happier knowing their work made a positive contribution. 

Given the many benefits of investing in the professional development of workers, it is worth considering what skills would be the best to focus on.

Eight Areas of Professional Development Focus

• Technical skills – This is a rapidly changing field and as such there is always something new to learn.
• Management training – Skills to deal with conflict, delegate, consider and apply strategies, and so on. 
• Teamwork training – Help teams collaborate and cooperate to work better together and overcome dysfunction.
• Problem-solving skills – Many are now looking for those who can analyze a problem and offer multiple possible solutions, weighing the pros and cons of each. 
• Self-management – Super critical with the increase in remote work where many must manage themselves, it refers to organizing, planning, meeting deadlines, and time management. 
• Ethics – A good way to communicate your company culture is by offering training in how to approach ethical dilemmas.
• Communication – Writing, speaking, and listening skills. 
• Leadership skills – Prioritizing goals and making decisions.

As a leader, you may be asking what you can do to promote professional development in your workers.

Six Ideas To Get You Started

1. Make time – Schedule time for this in the workday.
2. Help plan – Listen to what your workers want and be sure your programs are providing knowledge that can be immediately used in their current role. 
3. Provide opportunities – Make sure your workers have the resources to do the training and offer them continual opportunities for formal and informal development. Offer things like industry speakers, online learning opportunities, create a mentorship program, start a lunch-and-learn program, and encourage active participation. 
4. Encourage learning – Support the professional development of your workers by instilling in them the desire to learn.
5. Financial support – Consider offering tuition reimbursement or investing in e-learning opportunities. 
6. Set a good example – Actively promote professional development to your workers and show them that you are continually learning and developing yourself. 

We realize that investing in the professional development of your workers can make you face many decisions and know that we’re here to help.

Please contact us at info@primebenefitsgroup.com so we can work together to create solutions that work best for you and your organization. 

Suggested Readings:

• https://cpduk.co.uk/news/why-is-professional-development-important
• https://www.bbd.ca/blog/professional-development-workplace-culture/

Additional Resource:

• https://cpduk.co.uk/courses