No matter how drastically a business scales and evolves, its heartbeat will always remain the same—and that’s people. Regardless of size, industry, or mission, organizations thrive on employees who breathe the culture, possess great skills, and strive for excellence. But those all-stars don’t appear by chance; they’re developed over time, with great care and intention.
Employee training programs are a great way to upskill internal talent and turn benchwarmers into sluggers. Unfortunately, too many companies treat employee training and development like a compliance checkbox. Even if you manage to escape that narrative, it can be a struggle to obtain the help and resources you need to make your program a success.
That’s where we can help. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of modern employee training programs. Get tips, data, and examples based on real-world companies, so you can bolster your learning and development efforts, advocate for better tools, and develop great talent across the business.
What Is an Employee Training Program?
An employee training program is the process of developing internal talent in an organization to improve productivity and retention. While employee training programs differ significantly between companies, almost all involve upskilling and reskilling, in which program leaders take note of missing skills and competencies and then create an action plan to bridge the skills gap.
In past decades, employee training programs were treated merely as a defensive measure—a way to ensure compliance and protect the company against risk. Safety videos, anti-harassment training, and security quizzes are all examples of training that, while important in their own right, are either mandated by law or designed to comply with other laws.
Today, however, employee training programs are evolving. Leaders are leveraging training not just as an extension of HR or IT, but as a competitive advantage. By designing training programs that aren’t just defensive, but offensive, companies enable their workforce to adapt to market pressures, future-proof their operations, and ward off industry competitors.
Why Are Employee Training Programs Important?
The business world has never moved faster than it is today. Between the shift to hybrid work and the growing adoption of AI tools, organizations are able to gather and share data with incredible velocity. While this has plenty of benefits (quicker decisions, faster innovation, etc.), it also creates potential for flimsier processes, weaker follow-through, and risky miscalculations.
According to Gallup, only 47% of employees strongly agree they have the skills needed to excel in their current role. Couple that with a 2024 Gartner study, which found that 62% of HR leaders believe the gap between present and future skills poses a significant risk to their business, and it’s clear the skills gap isn’t narrowing anytime soon. If anything, it’s getting wider.
Employee training programs help ensure you and your workforce aren’t part of those statistics. By designing training materials for the age of AI, you can address current skill gaps while anticipating future needs. The best employee learning programs are scalable, sustainable, and ever-improving; they empower your teams to not just survive, but thrive.
Benefits of Employee Training and Development
Building a business case for employee training and development but don’t know where to start? Good news: There are plenty of well-documented benefits to help you articulate the value of the employee learning experience.
Here are just a few of the benefits of employee training programs:
1. Fewer skill gaps
When employers take their people for granted, it leaves businesses vulnerable. It’s not enough to hire someone talented and onboard them into a role; jobs evolve, and so do the skills needed to perform those jobs well. The longer these skill gaps persist, the wider they grow, worsening downstream effects on your employees and clients.
By investing in employee training, you can bridge existing skill gaps, anticipate future ones, and always ensure workers are prepared for the job at hand.
2. Improved performance
When employees thoroughly understand how to do their job, that job becomes a whole lot easier. Technology that once felt foreign is now second-nature. Tasks that took hours now take minutes. Layer in game-changing tools like AI, and it’s no wonder why people see greater results when they’re willing to learn, and the tools are provided to them.
The data backs this up. According to a SurveyMonkey study, 59% of employees say that training improves their overall job performance. Unfortunately, that same study found that only 52% of employees believe their companies provide sufficient training.
The takeaway: If you’re not actively investing in your employee training program, you’re leaving engagement, output, and money on the table.
3. Greater employee retention
There’s arguably no worse feeling at work than feeling ill-equipped to do your job. Without the skills and institutional knowledge needed to perform at a high level, even the most ambitious and positive employees begin to disengage.
Your employee training program is the lifeline that ensures disengagement doesn’t happen. By providing regular on-ramps to learning a job, you allow employees to build not just competence, but confidence. And when people are happy at work, they’re far less likely to leave.
The key here is regularity. The more frequent and consistent the training experience, the more opportunities there are to reinforce past concepts and establish healthy habits. As we found in our 2022 report, 56% of businesses with formalized education programs report improved employee retention, compared to just 21% of companies with ad hoc education efforts.
Types of Employee Training Programs
When developing your education program, it’s important to understand the tools of the trade. From wide-ranging development initiatives to workshops that hone a specific skill or discipline, here are some of the different types of training you might pursue.
1. Leadership development
One of the most powerful growth drivers in a business is leadership training and development. Your C-Suite could be stacked with the greatest thinkers in your industry, but without terrific leadership to execute that thinking, you might as well leave those ideas on paper.
Leadership training ensures your business has the talent to see even the loftiest strategy through. Despite common misconceptions, great leadership can apply to all people, which makes it useful in most business contexts. Whether you’re coaching middle managers, upskilling cross-functional leads (e.g., project managers), or instilling cultural values into individual contributors, leadership development helps you level up from top to bottom.
2. Professional development
Where leadership training focuses mainly on business growth, professional development (PD) is devoted to personal growth. Often held between a manager and their direct report, professional development can incorporate everything from career goals to emotional intelligence.
Here are a few prompts a manager might use during a PD meeting:
- What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure here?
- Where do you see yourself professionally in five years?
- How and where can I support you in your career development?
- Are there any new skills, tools, or technology you’ve been looking to explore?
- If you had an extra hour a week for learning and development, how would you use it?
These discussions can be as formal or informal as you’d like. What matters most is that they’re designed to help the employee, wherever they’re at in their professional journey.
3. Technical training
Technical training applies to scenarios where you need to deliver targeted, in-depth training to specific teams. If you’re launching a product, you might lead a training session to teach customer service reps about all the new features and functionality. If you’re forecasting a massive sales target for the coming year, you could explore sales training to refresh on prospecting best practices and ensure each team member can meet their quota.
You’re likely already investing in this type of training, but it never hurts to check with team leaders. It’s possible some aren’t making the most of their training funds and/or would benefit from a better vendor.
4. Soft skills training
It’s important to balance technical training with “softer” upskilling plays. Even if a sales team is well-versed in tracking down leads, they might need coaching to ensure they’re personable, positive, and professional on a call. Likewise, a business intelligence team might thrive in the numbers but struggle to present those findings to leadership.
Soft skills training will likely vary in form from one team to the next. Work with team leads to identify the biggest opportunity areas, then make a plan to deliver content that fits those needs.
Tip: Have countless teams to support but finite resources? Try a modular content strategy that repurposes training content for different user needs.
Examples of Great Employee Training Programs
The best employee training programs are those that grow alongside your people and your business. Of course, that may seem hard to accomplish, especially with limited time and funding. When in doubt, look to companies that are doing more with less—and seeing sustainable results.
Here are three great program examples that show the power of employee education:
1. Google
Google is a titan not just in the world of search, but in ads, e-commerce, cloud computing, storage, AI, and so much more. While Google is predominately associated with online services and infrastructure, the company has a very real presence in brick-and-mortar stores.
In 2017, long before Google began piloting its own stores in major cities, the tech giant was able to penetrate the market by way of third-party retailers. By the end of that year, Google had amassed 700 “in-store experiences” in the U.S. through a strategic partnership with Best Buy.
With so much retail exposure in such a small timeframe, Google had to upskill thousands of Best Buy’s retail staff—fast. That’s why, as early as August 2016, the company enlisted the help of Intellum’s education platform. By leveraging Intellum, Google was able to deploy its own retail training program within six months.
By June 2017, Google’s in-store pop-ups were humming, in part thanks to timely online learning modules that ensured Best Buy reps were equipped with the latest Google product messaging and positioning. Google’s retail strategy has evolved over the years, but its retail training courses remain a staple to this day.
2. Titleist
When you think of quality golf equipment, Titleist is the first name that comes to mind. The company’s products—which include golf clubs, balls, and apparel—are second to none. But equally important to the products being sold are the people delivering them, and Titleist delivers here, too.
Nowhere is this balance better illustrated than with Titleist’s club fitting service. The company leverages a network of certified fitters around the world, each of whom is trained on Titleist clubs so they can provide customers with the right club for their exact swing, power, and overall game.
If you’ve ever played golf, you know that isn’t easy. The slightest variable can mean the difference between a straight drive and a frustrating slice. For Titleist’s club fitters to succeed, they need access to the right education at all times.
Enter their partnership with Intellum. Armed with the Intellum platform, Titleist was able to scale their training program in a way they simply couldn’t with their previous vendor. The company stress-tested Intellum in an effort “to break the system,” but instead found a smooth UX that allowed for easy content creation and even easier delivery.
The result: Titleist more than doubled their learner base and expanded their training into 20 languages, ensuring great education could reach club-fitters—and end consumers—in all of the company’s key markets.
3. Allied Universal
Allied Universal is one of the biggest private security companies in the world, and the third largest employer in the U.S. With 800,000 employees across 100 countries, the company constantly needs to adapt to changing laws, customs, and needs.
No two Allied security professionals work the exact same job. Responsibilities differ greatly, whether it’s maintaining safety on a college campus, extending a helping hand at a hospital, or protecting thousands of dollars at a local bank. Federal, state, and local regulations only add to the complexity, requiring Allied employees to learn up on everything from transportation safety to chemical compliance.
Managing a workforce of this magnitude should be impossible—but Allied Universal makes it look easy. Employees are constantly absorbing new information, learning complex skills, and adapting to changing needs. Doing all of this ensures these professionals are equipped to deliver best-in-class security and safety.
For more than 15 years, Allied has leveraged Intellum to design eLearning courses that employees can enjoy, even while on the go. Their employee training program upskills over 270,000 users worldwide, with the average Allied worker completing at least 12 trainings a month.
Get Tips to Build a Great Training Program With Our Ebook.
At Intellum, we don’t look at training in silos. All stakeholders, from L&D to HR and IT, have an active role to play in bringing out the best in your employees. And that starts by fundamentally rethinking the way you educate.
Download our free Education-Led Growth for L&D ebook, and learn how to design a training program that scales not through one-and-done exercises, but through strategic and repeatable learning experiences.
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