Does Investing in Employee Training Really Boost Engagement? Let's Discuss!

Friends,

Has anyone conducted a study to correlate employee engagement with the level of training provided in an organization? Do organizations that heavily invest in training and development also demonstrate higher levels of employee engagement, and vice versa?

Generally, what is the opinion of members on this topic?

Thanks,
Anuraag

Dear Anurag,

When posing a query, please state what you do and why you are interested in the topic.

Have a nice day.

Simhan
A retired academic in the UK

I have been in the industry for 22 years in various roles, including as HR Head at one point in time. Presently, I am an HR consultant and trainer and pursuing research in the area of Employee Engagement.

Regards,
Anuraag

Dear Anuraag,

Thank you for the clarification. The more information you provide, the better for people to respond to your query. For general queries like yours, the best place is the web. I hope I am not trying to teach you like the proverb "Teaching grandma to suck eggs." We have to define the term "Training" and clearly state what type of training we are considering. For example, technical training may not have much effect; please see Employee engagement: employers getting it wrong and the White Paper at http://www.trainingfoundation.com/docs/ttfwhitepaper_2.pdf found on Google.

You can see my profile by clicking on "About us."

Have a nice day.

Simhan

Dear Anuraag,

I came to know from your post that you have been conducting research on employee engagement. I understand that employee engagement is an ongoing effort, and I would like to learn from you on this topic.

To begin, I would like to address the fundamental question posed by Gallup, "I know what is expected of me at work." Could you please provide guidance on some actionable plans to tackle this issue? While I acknowledge that feedback from surveys will be crucial in this process, could you suggest some common action plans that any industry can implement to initiate this effort?

I would appreciate your response.

Regards,

Anuraag

"I have been in the industry for 22 years, holding various roles, including serving as an HR Head at one point. Currently, I work as an HR consultant and Trainer while also pursuing research in the field of Employee Engagement.

Regards,
Anuraag"

Hi Shravani,

A few basic things that can be done, irrespective of industry, are:

- Perform a Job Analysis
- Define Roles and responsibilities
- When hiring a person, be very clear about the skills and competencies required to perform the job
- Once a person has joined, the onboarding should be properly done. Apart from normal induction, the person should be explained the role very clearly, along with performance expectations and measurement criteria.
- There should be regular (At least once a quarter) review meetings between the Manager and employee to discuss performance issues.

Most of the issues come up because the job dimensions, expected performance level, and measurement criteria are not known. We presume these things. It may also be useful to train the person on company processes and provide support during the initial few months.

In a nutshell, role clarity, defined performance expectations, measurement criteria, and review mechanism would help. All of which means more and more open communication between the manager and the subordinate.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Anuraag

Hi Anurag,

Thanks for the guidance. However, what you have mentioned is for new recruits. What about the old employees who have served for a period of more than 10 years?

Secondly, how to create accountability along with empowerment and the responsibilities assigned in the form of key performance measures?

Would be grateful for an answer.

Regards