Why Is Training Important?

I’m so glad you asked!  Before I answer this question, I want to give you a bit of background.  I’ve worked for several companies, domestically and internationally.  I only worked for one American company that has ever conducted training when coming onboard as a new hire. Now, let’s talk about the importance of training in the workplace.

Background in learning in the workplace.

After being in the Navy, to me it was surprising that companies didn’t train their people.  In the Navy, we spend our time training (and cleaning) when we’re not on watch (aka shift work).  We also trained people on watch, because it was important for them to understand both principles and application of those principles.  Prior to going onto watch, we were spending a couple of hours every workday training for our job.  There was never a work shift day that we didn’t train on a system or otherwise.

In the civilian world, the opposite is true.  In fact, I remember several times over the years asking for training only to be denied.  The reasons were always rather baffling as to why.

The Dollars & Sense of Training

Did you know that training talented people is cheaper than the hiring process? It’s also going to be faster than hiring a new person.  Let’s talk about the reality I’ve seen in the last 20ish years.  While in service industries, it may be that it takes as little as a week or two to hire someone, it can take around 45 days to bring an engineer through the hiring process.  These averages I took straight from recruiting websites and Indeed.  However, with talent analytics, it can take over 52 days to find the right person.

Now, I’m not going to discuss hiring practices in this blog.  I have discussed job advertisements in a blog, but that’s not the total picture.  In the very least, it will cost about $4,000USD according to Glassdoor, to hire someone new.  But, it can cost as much as 30% of a new employee’s annual income to hire new talent.  In the State of Oregon, where my business is located, Oregon workers averaged $55,027USD (in 2019).  Obviously, these averages change based on the industry in the state, but you get the point.  At 30%, you’d be paying an additional $16,508 for that new hire.

Onboarding a new hire, an average employer spends about $1,500USD to train a person.  Of course, this depends on your industry, company size, and the type of training.  That’s a big chunk of change. It goes further when you think about shifts in productivity.  It’s puzzling to think about, but in the US (and UK), businesses lose an estimated $37Billion because of workplace ignorance.