3 Studies Say an Increase in Job Training Leads to Fewer Resignation Letters

Over the past year, at least 2.7 million people each month have said “I quit” to their employers. That’s well over 3,500 people every hour. Obviously, there are a lot of reasons why people quit, but one that I am particularly interested in is the lack of training.

The Studies

According to three separate studies, people who learn little in their jobs leave quickly. I’ve summarized those findings here:

1. Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 54 percent greater new hire productivity, along with 50 percent greater new hire retention. (Source )
2. If employees feel they are learning and growing in your organization, you’ll be less likely to lose up to 60 percent of your entire workforce within four years. (Source )
3. A study of employees at Corning Glass Works showed that new employees who attended a structured orientation program were 69 percent more likely to remain at the company for up to three years. (Source )

My Theory

The lack of training leads to turnover because managers don’t care enough about their employees’ personal gain.

Who do you care about the most? You may answer “my significant other,” or “my children,” or even “my friends,” but you’re missing a key individual: yourself. The fact is, we all think about ourselves all of the time.

We have to. It’s essential. It’s the primary reason why we don’t get burned when near a fire and why we drink water when we’re thirsty.

Our individual goals and aspirations guide our decisions regarding where we apply our effort and attention. Employees need to have their own desires fed. If you do not invest in them and show them you care, you’ve failed to meet their No. 1 criteria for living a good life: their own interests. When the watering hole dries up, the animals leave.

Start Planning

I’ve encountered many types of companies in my role at Lesson.ly, and I’ve seen one common thread that unites pretty much everyone looking for training software: No one knows where to start.

They don’t have a plan, and they need help creating one to get their teams up to speed.

We’ve helped a lot of businesses with the plan part. More than 600 businesses have downloaded our training plan template. After evaluating thousands of lessons and the training behavior therein, we’ve decided to update the plan to include best practices that pertain to the common topics our customers focus on.

We received a completed plan template from a new client yesterday, and it absolutely made my day. The client had planned out more than 30 new lessons to create and is now kicking off the content creation stage.

Begin investing in your employees through training. An employee’s longevity at your company may depend on it. Make your own training plan, or try a template. Either way, an employee training program is worth your time. Get going!

A version of this article originally appeared at The Huffington Post.