From increasing staff motivation and productivity to improving your business’ employee retention, there are lots of great reasons to invest in upskilling your workforce.

Your staff are your most valuable asset, and making sure they are trained with the skills they need to meet your business goals is essential. It leads to more satisfied employees and puts your business on a pathway to success.

Here are five reasons why upskilling is a win-win for both employers and staff.

1. Keep them satisfied

If you’ve ever worked with a dissatisfied employee, you will understand just how quickly their dissatisfaction can turn toxic and spread throughout the workplace. Whether it’s lack of training or lack of resources, workers who feel they do not have what they need to excel in their roles will likely lose focus and underperform.

Staff who have the opportunity to experience growth and learn new things on the job are far more likely to be satisfied at work. A satisfied employee is less likely to go in search of greener pastures, which means your business also reduces staff turnover.

2. Motivation matters

Have you ever wondered what role employee motivation plays in the success of your business? Do you consider what you can do to get your employees to go the extra mile? If you’re thinking money might be the key to motivating your staff, you’d be mistaken.

A study by Tiny Pulse of 200,000 employees from 500 organisations around the globe found workplace culture, opportunities for growth and purpose ranked highest when it came to keeping staff motivated.

3. Upskilling increases productivity

If you’ve ever attempted to learn a new skill in your private life, whether it be cooking a gourmet meal or mastering a new language, you understand the difficulties of the process. If you muddle through attempting to teach yourself, it takes double the time as if you had sought expert advice.

The same goes for business – if you expect your staff to simply pick up a skill without the assistance of training, you will lose time. And as any small business owner knows, time equals money.

By contrast, a trained team wastes less time and resources, which sees productivity improve and results in a higher quality of work.

4. Perks, purpose and passion

Australia’s low unemployment rate means today’s jobseekers are often spoiled for choice. They want to want to work for great employers. That means your business needs to not only offer perks and purpose, but possibilities for growth to boot.

For Generation Z this adage is particularly important. An Enactus study found 91 per cent cited professional training as an important factor when choosing an employer.

So, ensuring you provide opportunities for staff to upskill will aid in giving your business a great reputation, which in turn attracts top talent and makes you an employer of choice.

5. Future-proofing for the new industrial revolution

While it is unlikely that a robot will steal your job, increasingly, the majority of people are raising concerns about the future of work.

Their main worry? That they will lack the skills necessary to remain employable in the fourth industrial age.

As digital transformation begins to traverse all sectors of the workforce, ensuring your staff stay up to date with the latest skills will go some way towards alleviating their fears.

TAFE Enterprise offers a range of short courses that are perfect for training your team in vital business areas. Discover more ways you can help your staff to upskill and grow.

This post was originally published on 24 November, 2019.

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