In generations past, it would not have been unusual to hear about employees staying with a company for 25, maybe 35 years. After all, many companies saw their employees as investments and there for the long term. Employees had incentives to stay, such as health care plans, bonuses and pensions. Staying with a company meant gaining seniority and respect and after many, many years of loyal service, of helping to make the company profitable and build it up, they were rewarded with care packages and a pension plan that would help ensure that retired workers would no longer have to work and could retire in peace. In today’s workplace context, it sounds almost too good to be true.
Somewhere in the last few decades, for some companies, the mentality changed to see employees as replaceable numbers and not considered real assets to the company. Anyone could be replaced if necessary so often no real effort was made to instil a sense of loyalty in the company. For some the opinion was why waste time trying to retain someone when they could just as easily hire a new person to fill that role, possibly at a cheaper rate. The result was evident in companies that offered low wages, little or no health care and certainly no pension plans. Fast forward to today and companies are faced with talent crunches and a workforce who have been indoctrinated in the belief that a company will not be loyal to them, so why should they be loyal to a company?
Today, the roles are reversed and companies across Asia are now faced with the situation of having to fight to retain skilled employees in the midst of a talent crunch. One way companies can consider achieving this is by investing in their employees and providing retraining to refresh them in their roles or to provide them skills in a new role.
WHAT IS EMPLOYEE RETRAINING?
The concept of employee retraining revolves around the idea of training an employee again in order to give them more current knowledge of their industry, job or company assets. Alternately, it could also refer to providing an employee with training in a new field and developing their existing skills to be beneficial in a different area of the business.It is also a very effective method by which companies can retain existing staff, by providing them with new skills and perhaps even a new area of work in which they can challenge themselves. In Singapore, for example, we are currently seeing many workers who were made redundant undergo courses and training to learn new skills in a new area.
With the rate at which technologies evolve, employee retraining has become a critical success factor for leading organisations. Without retraining, employees skills could fall dangerously behind the times,
rapidly making their level of knowledge as obsolete as year-old software. By providing retraining, companies are giving their workforce new required skills and keeping their employees highly professional and competent.
“For a company to be successful, it needs to adapt to the ever increasing demands to satisfy and delight its customers,” says Diana Boon, Division Head for HR and Admin at Epson Southeast Asia. “The idea of retraining is to align the mind -set and the behaviour of employees toward such needs. We always have to examine what we do and how we do our work and retraining gives us this opportunity and focus.”
While some companies retrain their employees because of technological advancements or new business developments, others offer programmes to transition employees to other areas of the business. Whatever the reasons may be, these programmes are beneficial because they increase long-term productivity, increase employee loyalty and reduce costs.
Retraining has a number of immediate benefits to both employer and employee. It offers workers the opportunity to maintain and develop updated task-specific skills that help the company to move forward. Specialised skills take years to develop and master, so by providing retraining programmes and continuous training programmes, organisations are helping employees develop deeper and richer skills in their chosen professions. Without these efforts, many employees would lack the technical skills and knowledge necessary to meet work demands.
Some retraining programmes teach skills that help improve products and services. While these programmes educate workers, they also open doors to new and advanced work methods that can improve products and ultimately provide greater satisfaction for customers. Without retraining programmes, a company may not be able to keep up with businesses that offer competitive products or services.
THE VALUE OF TRAINING
One of the leading arguments for retraining is the significant cost benefits that result from retaining staff as opposed to obtaining new hires. According to the Society for Human Resources Management, employee replacement costs can reach as high as 50 to 60 percent of an employee’s annual salary. By focusing on retention, a company can offset employee replacement costs and reduce the indirect costs associated with decreased productivity and lost clients.
Employee retention also has a significant effect on productivity. When an employee leaves, productivity always takes a hit. An unfilled post means that work is just not getting done. Even when a new hire is brought in, training takes time and there is always an intensive learning period that most employees must overcome before work becomes profitable. “New hires always have a learning curve,” states Boon. “Depending on the position, it could take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years before an employee can effectively contribute to the organisation.” By taking the necessary steps to keep current workers happy, productivity is not affected
In a study by the National Centre on the Educational Quality of the Workforce, it was found that a 10 percent increase in workforce education levels led to an 8.6 percent gain in total productivity. However, a 10 percent increase in the value of equipment increased productivity by only 3.4 percent.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Laszlo Bock, SVP of Google’s People Operations, stated that one of the things that keeps employees happy is the feeling that the work they do is meaningful. “People want to do more than just make a buck,” Bock said.
“People want to do something that means something.” Bock further cited research by Wharton professor Adam Grant that found when people are able to connect their jobs to something meaningful, their productivity increases as much as five times.
“Retraining provides a new breadth to do things differently and thus more efficiently. It helps one to see beyond one’s own perspective or ‘world’ and see things in a bigger picture,” Boon adds. “This allows them to plan ahead or take preventive measures for potential failures, thus resulting in cost savings and increased productivity.”
Retraining also has a positive effect on employees’ morale levels. By providing updated skills training or offering to train an employee in a different area of business, one that may be of more interest to them, the management creates a positive work environment and serves to strengthen the employee’s commitment to the organisation. It is no secret that employees who enjoy what they do, and the atmosphere in which they work, are more likely to remain employed with the company.
Even recruitment receives a boost from the incorporation of retraining programmes. Candidates are more likely to choose a company that invests in their future by providing an increased amount of training or education opportunities. 
THE ART OF RETRAINING
A retraining programme is usuall thought to be a way by which an existing workforce can be retrainedin their skills, however it can also be used to train new employees. Adecco provides the following tips to carrying out a successful retraining programme:
1. Assess the retraining need – An organisation needs to identify where there is a need to retrain a workforce/employee for new skills or to develop and deepen knowledge. “It will be good if interventions can be done before the employee chooses to resign,” suggests Boon. “At Epson, employees are free to ask about positions in other divisions and where they believe their contributions can be more significant. When a vacancy arises, the employee will be first considered among external applicants.”
2. Categorise training – Separate training into soft and hard skill categories. Soft skills could include areas such as customer service, policies, harassment procedures, diversity, safety and other general information trainings. Hard skills refer to those used to complete a specific task, like machine operation or specific job procedures.
3. Assign and offer training – Create a schedule of training sessions that list employees, job titles and all training available, as well as dates for those training sessions.
4. Mix and Match – Match employees with trainings that suit their specific jobs. At the same time, be sure to inform employees that they are able to join trainings that are not specific to their roles in order to broaden their skillset.
5. Assign a leader – Designate an in-house training coordinator or team to help develop and create the programme. There are any number of resources available online to assist in creating a successful programme, so make sure they take advantage of that.
6. Kick Off – Implement your training program and be sure to integrate both new hires and existing employees, both those for whom the training is relevant and those who have indicated an interest in that particular training.
7. Monitor and improve – No programme is perfect right away so be sure to monitor it regularly. Get employee feedback on how the training was conducted, whether the subject was adequately covered, how it can be improved and what future training they would like to see. From a department perspective, compare “before and after” productivity statistics and use that to gauge the effectiveness of the training.
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Adecco Thailand is a leader in human resource solutions, recruitment services, employment & outsourcing services, HR consulting, training solutions and outplacement services.
With over 25 years experience in Thailand, the company has developed an extensive network and expertise to assist clients in building successful teams. Operating through 10 business units, Adecco Thailand connects over 14,000 people each day through a network of over 250 Employers.
For further details, please visit www.adecco.co.th
