Marketing Training as a Benefit

Kylie Quetell Benefits, Business Development, Career Advice, Communication, Culture, Employee Development, employee experience, Engagement and Satisfaction, HR, Uncategorized

Today’s workforce is very impatient. We want to grow and develop and get promoted, and we want it all to come very quickly. To be perfectly frank, we believe we are entitled to it. I am your employee, and so therefore you should be giving me things. Lots of things. So many things. I don’t even care what those things are, as long as they are perceived as free and meant specifically for me.

Unemployment is low, which means that I now get to choose which organization I’m going to work for next. If you read the previous paragraph, you can probably guess that I’m going to choose the company that gives me the most free stuff.


Here is the trick – you are likely already giving away free things to your employees, you just aren’t marketing them the right way.

  • Do you offer 401k options? How kind of you, you invest in your employees’ futures.
  • Do you bring in cheap pizza once a month as a thank you? Oh, how thoughtful. You reward good teamwork with monthly free lunches.
  • Do you have a huge ass parking lot that your employees park in? Oh my, how very considerate of you to offer free employee parking.
  • Free shitty coffee? You offer free coffee–enough said.
  • Do you train your employees on how to do their job? Bingo! You care about your employees and want to make sure they are developing their skills for the future.

You get the idea, and since my expertise is in training, let’s elaborate on that last training bullet:

Onboard

If you onboard your team members to help them integrate into your company’s culture, that matters. It is important, and employees want it.

Job Skills Training

Your employees’ success depends on their ability to do their job. A great way to offer stability and job security is to train your employees on how to do their jobs really well. You don’t throw them to the wolves, you offer them job skills training

Development

Your employees want to grow and develop. So offer them some training classes to help them get to the next step. It can be training for leadership, or to become an expert doer. It can be in the classroom, online, or even experiential job training. If you already have next career steps outlined, that’s a bonus! You can market that you offer career development.

Leadership Training

If you invest in your leaders, that means that as a new employee I know I’ll be trained well and will have career mobility. I also will guess that the leaders in your organization don’t completely suck. That’s a good thing, and can absolutely be marketed.

Organizations do not need to spend more money to attract and retain good talent.

Instead, you need to communicate what you are doing, why you are doing it, and sell the benefit. A top indicator of engagement is whether employees are being trained and developed. Unfortunately, we as employees need to be told what is being offered in big shiny blinking letters with stars and glitter. This isn’t bragging and it’s not manipulating. Remember, today’s workforce is impatient. That means I just need you to tell me all of the great things about you because I absolutely do not have the time to research it on my own.