Image by Elmira College via Flickr
Employers need to empower employees. Providing continuing education is one such empowerment. Big companies practice this human resources policy. Even small companies can do it too. Employees would love the fact that their employer is encouraging them to learn.
Any employee loves a sense of security. The market is constantly changing. They need to keep updating themselves with the latest skills. Not that it is used in their present organization, but it might be helpful in the future.
Some employers often shy away from giving such training. They feel empowering their employees might make them skilled enough to leave the organization. Research suggests that this seldom happens. Employees have something called a goodwill-balance deposit in any organization. This defers them from leaving a company that took care of them.
The next question is “What kind of education to provide and to whom?” Employees generally want management education, and technical education. Some of them would want to take up non-related education for fulfill their desires.
The employer should understand how the education is going to help the employee professionally and personally. The most important thing is how it can be applied to the current role. Although all of what employees learnt might not be relevant to their current engagements, at least a small percentage might.
By providing continuous education facilities an employer creates a world-class talent pool in their own company. In the future they might not need to look elsewhere for talent. When the already have knowledgeable people, all they require to do is provide practical experience.
