Blog: The Importance of Employee Investment

Employee Relations

The Importance of Employee Investment

Investment in your employees doesn’t just mean investing in their career enhancement, skills, and development. But its something more.
The Importance of Employee Investment

The Importance of Employee Investment

Employee investment is one of the most important aspects of any successful businesses model. When asked what their assets are, most business owners will list their physical  assets; any property they own and maybe even their client list. However, as any HR professional will know, the real assets of most businesses are the staffs that works so hard for them. Good staff are the biggest asset any business can have, and employee wellbeing, engagement and investment are the most important things you can do to retain those employees and promote your business success. The fact of the matter is that if you feel your employees are worth the investment, and you wish to retain them whilst simultaneously increasing your company productivity then you need to spend money and give your employees the investment that they deserve.1

Employee Investment in Training and Development

We live in a constantly changing and evolving world where business models and the use of technology are becoming both increasingly more important to running a successful business and increasingly complex. It is no longer enough to have highly qualified employees with higher levels of education without continuing to invest in them and develop their skills. Otherwise those skills will quickly become stagnant and outdated. According to Forbes magazine,2 the most vital skills to develop in employees are critical thinking and problem-solving skills, communication skills, collaboration skills, and, creativity and innovation skills, and the best way to develop these skills is through proactive employee training, education, and engagement. Whilst the economy is still in recovery, investing in staff training may seem counterproductive and like an unnecessary expenditure that you may well not feel that your business can afford. However training your staff and investing in their skills and development can actually have huge benefits to your business, improving your employee’s ability to bring in new business, and increasingly their good will towards your company which in turn can improve levels of staff retention (something that can actually save you money in the long term). IBM are one of the biggest Fortune 1000 companies to recognise the importance of investing in their employee training and development. They invest heavily in their workers by running in-house training centers, focusing particularly in the fields of  project management, human resources management, and leadership training. This investment isn’t just good for staff morale, but can also help to boost your revenues: The Cheesecake Factory spends an average of $2,000 per annum on their employee training, and turns over sales of at least $1000 per square foot of restaurant they own.3

Employee Investment in Healthcare

Investment in your employees doesn’t just mean investing in their career enhancement, skills, and development. It is also important to offer perks and incentives to your employees that invest in their continued health, care, and wellbeing.4 A healthy workforce is a happier and more productive workforce. Investing in health care plans for employees not only increases their productivity, it also has a positive impact on company output, minimises the number of employee absences due to sickness, increases employee retention, and improves the general positive atmosphere amongst your staff.5 There are really no negative effects of offering employee investment in healthcare as a perk to your employees. Knowing that you care about them and their health and wellbeing can also give employees confidence and increase their levels of good feeling and positive opinions about their employee. This becomes particularly important if you are trying to secure new staff, and are unable to compete with other employers by offering them higher salaries: instead the perks and benefits that you are able to offer will take on increased importance.6 Costco has one of the most generous health care packages in the country, offering full health benefits to even their part time employees: as a result, they have low employee turnover and high levels of employee satisfaction, ultimately saving them money in the cost of regular recruitment.7

Implement Additional Incentives

If you have already implemented many of these employee engagement tools and still wish to reward your staff regularly, but perhaps on a more small scale budget, then additional employee incentives may well provide a welcome benefit to your employees.8 These incentives can be as small as free snacks and drinks (cakes, cookies, and even a free lunch on a Friday are all very popular perk for employees). Extra time off and gift cards or store discount cards can also be used to reward the most engaged and successful employees in your company, to let them know that their hard work is both recognised and appreciated.

References

[1] “The importance of employee development”, Entrepreneur Magazine, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77678 

[2] “Want your company to succeed in the future? Invest in employee skills training”, Forbes Magazine, http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2012/05/14/want-your-company-to-succeed-in-the-future-invest-in-employee-skills-training-like-deloitte-llp/ 

[3] “How top companies make the ROI case for employee investment”, Skilled Up, http://www.skilledup.com/insights/how-top-companies-make-the-roi-case-for-employee-training 

[4] “Corporate health insurance”, Quote Zone, http://www.quotezone.co.uk/corporate-health-insurance.htm 

[5] “Driving employee health”, People Matters, http://www.peoplematters.in/video/2013/07/19/employee-relations/people-matters-quest-diagnostics-webinar/10079 

[6] “Nice urges employers to promote healthy working environments”, Employee Benefits, http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/benefits/healthcare-and-wellbeing/nice-urges-employers-to-promote-healthy-working-environments/107098.article 

[7] “America’s top companies for compensation and benefits”, Forbes Magazine, http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/05/23/americas-top-companies-for-compensation-and-benefits/ 

[8] “The importance of investing in employee engagement”, Engage for Success Magazine, http://www.engageforsuccess.org/importance-investing-employee-engagement/#.VZL8H_lViko 

Disclaimer: This is a contributed post. The statements, opinions and data contained are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of People Matters and the editor(s).

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Topics: Employee Relations, Employee Engagement

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