Employee training and development isn’t just about teaching employees to do their jobs. It’s about showing employees they are valued and that upward movement in the organization is possible. When employees don’t see opportunity, they don’t bring their best selves to work.
“Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.”
It’s a proverb we all know — so common it’s become cliché. But clichés come from truth. Amid the business of running a business, it can be easy to forget the importance of good training. How often have you said, “I’ll do it myself” because teaching someone else seemed too time-consuming? But how often are you frustrated the next time that same task comes around and you have to do it yourself again?
What is an employee training and development program?
An employee training and development program is a series of educational activities designed to improve employees’ knowledge and skills. The most obvious type of employee training is technical training — teaching them their job duties, the company’s processes and systems, and the organization’s overarching mission and mandate. But training can also cover soft skills such as people management or upskilling beyond an employee’s current role to prepare them for a promotion.
Employee training can take many different forms, such as group workshops, one-on-one sessions, formal education (e.g., college or university), job shadowing, mentorship, seminars, or job sharing.
The 4 approaches to employee development
While the types of employee training and development programs can be as varied as your employees themselves, all training plans will typically fall into one of four categories:
- Formal education — The formal training and practical requirements for a given role, such as a specific degree, license, or certification.
- Assessment — The employee performance reviews, one-on-ones, and any other efforts used to measure strengths and weaknesses and find ways for employees to improve.
- Job experience — The day-to-day, hands-on learning employees do as they master their role, take on new challenges, and grow within the organization.
- Interpersonal relationships — The coaching, mentorships, and any soft skills or interpersonal training employees may complete, such as customer service training, diversity and inclusion training, mental health education, or conflict resolution training.
The difference between training and development
While employee training and development are commonly lumped together, and both serve a critical role in the employee experience, there is an important distinction between the two.
- Training is job specific. It is ensuring an employee has the correct tools and learns the correct skills to complete their tasks. It is immediate and measured in short-term results.
- Development is about employee growth. It is long-term and more behavioral-focused.
“Development is much more of a conversation than training,” says Julian. “Where do you want to grow? How do we need you to grow? It requires a bit more vulnerability. Training assumes you have a skill gap or knowledge gap, whereas with development, you must be willing to lean into it to fully realize the benefits.”