Investing in your employees’ education has been known to result in a more engaged and productive workforce. This is because allowing workers to develop their skill set and improve their confidence in their own abilities gives them the opportunity to produce the best results and contribute to the company in a significant way. You already put in an exceptional amount of effort into hiring the best talent, so you need to do everything in your power to keep them there, and building their skills and helping advance their career will ensure just that.

Despite the obvious benefits of supporting the individual development of every employee, many companies still have yet to commit themselves to the practice. According to the CIPD’s Employee Outlook survey, although more employees are increasingly becoming satisfied with their jobs, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to employee satisfaction in terms of opportunities for growth and development.

To boost employee morale and keep your most skilled workers around for the long run, you should consider implementing the following strategies to invest in your employee’s education.

Traineeship

A traineeship program educates and equips young people aged 16 to 24 with the necessary skill set to successfully enter the workforce. The goal is to secure work placement for young individuals who don’t have sufficient work experience. This is a great program to put into practice in your company since you can train and inspire a new crop of highly-skilled talent who will want to work for you. It’s an early investment in prospective employees’ education and it shows that your company values career advancement and that you’re interested in helping your employees reach their full potential.

Employee Development Strategy

Helping your employees create an employee development strategy allows them to prosper and thrive in a structured and effective way. This will teach them how to use all the educational resources available to them within the company and how they want to use it to advance in their careers. It’s important to consult with them regarding what educational opportunities they want to pursue and how this will aid their development.

Financing Work-Related Education

Companies that pay for the cost of employee training and education can benefit from tax deductions. It’s also a “working condition fringe benefit” for employees, which means that these programs’ costs are also deductible. You can pay for any course or training granted. It merely develops the employee’s existing skill set and won’t encourage them to pursue a different career in a different industry.

Multi-department Training

Employees don’t need to stay isolated within their own departments and confined to just their assigned duties. Encouraging employee education means allowing them to collaborate and learn from other departments within the organization. Cross-department training is something that should be included in every employee’s training program.

Job Shadowing and Peer-to-Peer Mentoring

Set your employees up for success by assigning them peer mentors who can acquaint them with the business’s technicalities. Job shadowing also allows them to learn firsthand about what the position entails by observing more seasoned professionals.

Role Rotation

A role rotation program enables workers to experience what it’s like to work in different departments and roles. This gives them the chance to acquire new skills and thoroughly understand how all the moving parts of a business come together as a unit. This encourages efficiency and cooperation across all departments.

Student Loan Assistance

Student loans can put a lot of unnecessary stress on your employees, whether they’re already out of college or are still studying. Shouldering the financial burden for your employees will take some pressure off from them so that they can focus their efforts on their job performance instead.

Innovative and Accessible Training Options

Job training is a form of employee education. Any company worth their salt knows this, which is why they invest tons of effort and money into providing comprehensive training programs. Besides improving your training program, you should also offer more innovative and accessible options that consider the employees’ location, available resources, and learning style. This includes paying for enrollment to MOOCs or providing apps, webinars, and virtual training.

A lack of educational support in your organization is a surefire way to lose the best and brightest talent. Taking the time to support your employee’s development and career advancement ensures that not only will they be willing to stay, but that they’ll be instrumental to the success of the company in the long run.