Training as well as development are important. In fact, these are two of the most important components of a successful, thriving and competitive business.

Employees not only need training to do their job properly, but they also want and demand it. One of the most common reasons employees leave their company is because of a lack of training and development opportunities.

6 Signs Your Company Training Isn’t Up to Par

Despite the facts surrounding just how important training is, as well as promoting an ongoing culture that supports learning and development, employers just aren’t getting it.

Training and development still continues to be overlooked and it’s often one of the first places business leaders cut when they’re looking to tighten their belts.

The result is frequently a high turnover rate, safety accidents on the job and a generally dissatisfied workforce.

Maybe your company has training in place, but you’re worried it’s not effective.

Here are the top 6 signs your employee training and development efforts are sub-par or just completely failing:

  1. Your employees are either unaware or unfocused on the long-term mission and goals of your organization. Great training and development gives employees the skills to do their job on a short-term day-to-day basis, but it also lays out a bigger picture for them, and puts them as part of your company’s mission and long-term goals. If your employees seem unaware of what these things are, it can be a sign your training needs a revamp or a total overhaul.
  2. You have no idea whether or not your training and development efforts are having any impact on employee performance. If someone were to come to you and ask you how training employees was going and you couldn’t answer, it shows a deep flaw in your overall training system. The best employee training doesn’t just center on imparting skills and knowledge, but also puts in place finite metrics and ways to determine the impact of the training. eLearning is an ideal time and budget-efficient way to track training progress and success and it’s all tied into one learning management system (LMS).
  3. If your employees constantly seem to be spinning their wheels, overworked and frustrated, it may be due to lack of training and development. Training and development that’s well done provides a framework for employees that not only shows them skills and knowledge, but also lets them know what should take priority in their job and it can eliminate a lot of frustration. Training and development should really guide employees on a broader sense and let them know where to place their energy and their efforts.
  4. Continuous mistakes are commonplace. This may seem like an obvious training failing, but it’s not as obvious as you may think. Often when mistakes are made frequently in the workplace, rather than revisiting training and development options, employers think the best course of action is to fire employees. The training and development offered initially may simply not have been effective or thorough enough, and rather than looking at mistakes as an automatic failing on the part of the employee, it can be best to first look at training materials and see if gaps lie there. This can save time and money on the firing and hiring of new employees who are likely to face the same uphill battle if training isn’t working.
  5. Disengagement can point to a larger problem with how you’re training and developing your employees. They often appear disengaged when they feel they’re not initially trained properly and they’re not given the tools to feel prepared and empowered on the job, and that sense of disengagement can continue if continual learning and development isn’t an important part of your corporate strategy.
  6. Finally, the last red flag you should look out for is the idea that training and development is a punishment. It shouldn’t be seen as something that you have to undergo when you’re in “trouble” at work. Rather, good training and development should be seen as an opportunity and even a reward. If it’s the other way around in your organization, it may be time to make some changes.

Download free white-paper: 20 Ways to Improve Mandatory Training and Engage Employees.