The Business Case for Investing in Employee Certifications (Even in Tight Times)

Investing in your employees’ education is always useful. Everything that they learn and gain through training courses and certifications ultimately boosts the company’s knowledge hub.

With that being said, why is it important to invest in employee certifications, even when times are tough financially? What are the benefits of training your employees?

Why training is often first on the chopping block

One of the first things to go on the chopping block when it comes to making financial cuts is training. These often go first because they’re harder to measure in the ROI compared to other investments made.

With that being said, here are some of the reasons for training budgets being the first to go:

Difficult to measure ROI

When it comes to training, it’s often something that’s intangible and therefore takes time to manifest into something productive. Therefore, it makes it challenging for those fighting for budgets in training to quantify their return on investment. This is compared to more immediate investments made into the technology or infrastructure of the business.

Perceived as ‘nice to have’

Training is often perceived as an expense or a non-essential benefit, rather than a strategic investment. As such, it’s often looked at as something ‘nice to have’ rather than being an absolute necessity to incorporate in company budgets every year.

Lack of tangible outcomes

When it comes to a training program’s impact, it’s not easily quantifiable. As such, it’s not something that is seen as being able to deliver quick fixes. It’s often seen as a waste of resources, and that makes it an easy target to be cut.

Disconnect from business strategy

Training is often seen as an expense or a non-essential benefit. Rather than it being something that’s a key strategy in business growth. However, it can be a good contributor to business growth.

Cost centre mentality

Strategic value isn’t always clear when it comes to employee efforts, and therefore, it makes budgets vulnerable.

The long-term payoff of certified employees

What’s the long-term payoff of having certified employees? There are plenty of benefits, and if employers had a better understanding of the benefits that come from certified employees, the more likely they would be willing to invest in that education and training.

Availability of higher earnings

By providing staff with certification opportunities, previous studies have found that vocational certificates have helped increase earnings and better career trajectories.

Career advancements

When it comes to career advancements, certifications act as milestones for self-growth. Badges can increase the visibility of these achievements, as well as on resumes and social media.

From promotions to better jobs within the company and potentially outside of it, it’s good to provide your employees with career growth.

Skill validation

Certificates help to validate your skills, giving employees a tangible way to demonstrate their capabilities. 

It helps those with skill gaps to gain the upskilling or reskilling they need to keep them productive and also safe in the workplace. If you’re able to get forklift certified online, for example, it helps to keep staff switched on and safe in the workplace.

Enhanced productivity

Certified employees possess validated skills, which help lead to greater productivity and efficiency within their roles.

A resilient workforce

A workforce that has validated digital credentials is more adaptable and resilient. Having a workforce that’s adaptable and resilient in its efforts is crucial for further success.

Increased engagement and retention

Providing development opportunities and recognizing achievements with certifications helps notify employees that the organization is investing in their potential. That, in turn, helps to boost morale and leads to higher retention as a result.

Smart ways to implement affordable training programs

To help implement affordable training programs, there are a number of ways in which businesses should leverage that internal talent. 

Here are some smart ways that affordable training programs can be incorporated into the business going forward:

1. Knowledge sharing

Encouraging employees with expertise to run workshops and meetings that help to share knowledge with their colleagues is crucial. It helps to build up that company knowledge base, too.

You should also implement job shadowing where possible, along with cross-training programs to help colleagues learn new skills.

2. Embrace online learning

Online learning is something that can be incredibly helpful when it comes to investing in employee certifications. 

With that being said, look to utilize platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Udemy to get access to a wide range of courses for employees, at a much lower cost than other custom programs.

Try to break down training into small and digestible segments so that it’s easier for employees to engage with and apply the knowledge more quickly once absorbed.

3. Skill gap analysis

It’s good to look at where the gaps might be present when it comes to skills across your workforce. Identifying those specific skill gaps within your organization is essential, and it ensures your training resources and budget are put to good use where they’re needed most.

Speak to your employees and find out where the skills gaps lie; that way, you can direct the investment in the right direction.

4. Cultivate a learning environment

Cultivating a learning environment is definitely useful to do so that you have a workforce that’s adaptable and willing to shift with the times.

Ensuring your managers are involved as training ambassadors is a great way to promote learning, too.

5. Track KPIs 

Tracking KPIs is a great way to help improve performance and to ensure productivity is at its most effective.

Regularly collect feedback from your employees through surveys that they can stay anonymous on to understand aspects of the training that are working and where adjustments might be needed in order to make it more effective.

You should also determine the return on your investments so that you can justify the costs and demonstrate the tangible benefits of the training.

When it comes to investing in employee certifications, you should maximize your efforts and funding into training where you can. With regular employee training, it can make ba ig difference to your business growth.