Author and sales guru Zig Ziglar once said, “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is not to train them and keep them.” Investing in the continued education and training of your IT team has never been more essential. Given the high turnover in the industry and the ever-widening skills gap, education can be your greatest investment and your greatest retention asset.
The ROI of Investing in Development
Many South Florida companies say they want to invest in training and continuing education of their IT staff, but they don’t do it because they fear they can’t justify the costs. Let’s examine the return companies stand to gain from making this investment:
- Education creates “stickiness” – It is much harder to abandon an employer who invested a lot of money in training and development. That investment makes them feel appreciated, and they often feel like they owe their bosses for believing in them.
- Employees apply training to their current situation – When an IT employee learns a new skill, they apply it to the projects they are currently working on. Looking for new opportunities can feel like less of a priority when they have developed new skills for solving current problems.
- You create the skills you need – Rather than conducting an extremely expensive and time-consuming candidate search, you can tap your existing employees to fill in your skill gaps. Promoting from within saves money and time, and strengthens the loyalty of the promoted employee.
Creative Ways To Invest In Education For Your IT Team
There are an endless number of ways you can invest in education for your IT team. Some are traditional, some are not. What works for your organization will depend upon variables such as budget and timing, but here are some common ways that firms are developing their internal teams today:
- Tuition reimbursement – This can be either full reimbursement or partial reimbursement. Many companies require five years of service after completion of a degree program. If an employee leaves before then, they must pay back the company.
- Certification exam reimbursement – You can either pay for the exams up front, or after successful completion. Some companies also offer to pay for some or all of the pre-exam training.
- Conferences and trade shows – Participating in these industry-focused events exposes teams to new concepts and skills.
- Webinars – There are an endless number of webinars and web courses available to IT professionals.
- Take advantage of your vendors – You pay a lot of money for your technology stack. See what types of training those vendors offer for clients to help users develop their skills.
- Bring in trainers – Host training seminars at your offices. Schedule some during work hours and consider offering bonus courses on Saturdays. Your most engaged and interested employees will make the time to learn new skills.
- Create a mentoring program – Pair existing employees together to learn skills from each other on the job.
If your South Florida area organization is looking for innovative ways to a recruit and retain talented, highly-skilled and pre-trained IT employees, CERS can help. We are a nationally recognized recruiting and consulting firm based in the South Florida area that works with companies to help them develop and execute strategic hiring processes. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and source qualified candidates for your open positions, contact the team at CERS today.
