Most financial services know that training is important. Whether training is optional or compulsory, most of their employees have gone through at least one course of training.
The downfall, however, is that many companies consider it as secondary to primary business operations. They think of it as something they just have to do, instead of an opportunity to invest in their employees and the company’s future growth. In reality, training is critical to the profitability and growth of the company.
Here’s why when you invest in your employees, you reap the greatest reward.
Skills Quickly Become Obsolete
The primary reason financial services should invest in regular employee training is that skills are becoming obsolete at a faster rate than ever before.
Research has found that skills have a “shelf life” of about 5 years. This is cut in half for technical skills, with obsolescence at just 2.5 years. This ever-shortening shelf life of technical skills requires consistent re-skilling to keep employees’ abilities relevant and useful.
Unfortunately, many companies are already behind. According to McKinsey & Company, 87% of companies worldwide admit to having a skills gap in their workforce or anticipate one in the next few years. These industry-leading organizations are already playing catchup.
More Jobs But Fewer Workers
Today’s market is highly competitive, with each business endeavoring to develop the next world-changing innovation. These innovations, however, cannot be made by the company itself. They must be made by the bright minds working there.
As a result, the stakes to attract and retain top talent are high.
But, due in part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers have become more selective about the jobs they take. Even while companies are expanding their technical departments, they have to work harder to attract top talent to fill open roles.
Rising Hiring Costs
With a skill gap on teams, and the need to hire more, many companies put more effort into hiring. But, rising hiring costs are putting a limit on the lengths companies can or will go to bring talent in the door.
The Society for Human Resource Management states that the average cost to hire an employee is $4,129, with around 42 days to fill a position. According to Glassdoor, the average company in the United States spends about $4,000 to hire a new employee, taking up to 52 days to fill a position.
In addition, the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.
With such high costs associated with bringing in new employees, companies are turning to training to close skills gaps on their team, no hiring required.
Invest In The Right Training
The benefits of investing in training employees are clear – closed skill gaps, retained workforce, and eliminated hiring costs.
But, just as important as executing training, is choosing the right provider with programs that will satisfy your business needs. Choose carefully to reap the greatest reward.
Here’s what to consider when getting started.
Diversify Training
Leading upskilling practices recommend incorporating both digital and soft skills into training to help finance employees influence decision-making. Don’t focus only on growing technical expertise, use training opportunities to grow employees into well-rounded team members.
Select The Right Provider
When picking a training provider, it’s important to make a decision based on the factors important to your business. This could be specific software or languages offered, schedule flexibility, program length, in-person or remote delivery options, or customization options.
Picking a provider with a track record of success working with companies like yours can also make the difference between an experience that’s just okay, and one that builds your employees into star performers.
Celebrate Achievement
Most importantly, recognize and celebrate your employees’ educational achievements. Learning something new can be difficult, and recognizing even incremental improvements and celebrating upskilling achievements can add up to big cultural change.
Training Programs Made For Financial Services
When you invest in your employees, you invest in your company too. Why not invest in the best?
Let Flatiron School modernize your business with industry-tailored training programs in Cybersecurity, Data Science, Software Engineering, and Product Design.
