Learning is a Growth Engine: 3 Reasons Learning Will Propel Your Business Forward

Competing in today’s market has become increasingly challenging. Revenue targets and goals continue to go up, and organizations must meet their customers’ evolving needs. This is a new era of hybrid and remote work, which has contributed to one of the most competitive talent markets we’ve ever seen. Today, companies must provide a near-flawless customer experience to sustain growth, and it’s harder than ever to stand out as a brand to attract top talent.

So, how do businesses not just survive but thrive in today’s environment? 

Many of the companies winning are investing in learning, and learning is a growth engine propelling businesses forward today. 

When you invest in properly enabling your people, they are set up to become unstoppable. With the right training, teams can exceed revenue targets, attract and retain skilled talent, and inspire customers to become advocates. 

So with that, here are three reasons why investing in learning is one of the most strategic decisions you can make to succeed in today’s shifting landscape. 

Learning programs attract and retain top talent

In the new era of work, learning programs are critical to attract, develop, and retain top talent. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that 69 percent of companies engage in more skill-building than before the pandemic began. Employees want to learn new skillsets, create value for their organization, and accelerate their careers. And, they have more mobility than ever before to find opportunities to do this. In fact, employees who feel their skills are not put to good use in their current job are 10 times more likely to be looking for a new job.

The data is clear: If you’re not investing in your people to help upskill and reskill them, they will work somewhere else. People are your company’s most important asset, so if you want to attract skilled talent, and retain and develop your workforce, investing in Learning and Development (L&D) programs should be a top priority for your business. 

Investing in learning leads to inspired customers 

The story is twofold here. Let’s first explore the connection between happy employees and happy customers. 

Successful companies build strong relationships with their customers, and many of the most successful companies turn their customers into brand advocates. When 91 percent of B2B purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth, this strategy makes sense. 

So what’s the first step in building successful customer relationships? It goes back to investing in your people. You’ve heard the phrase, ”You have to make yourself happy before you can make others happy”. In the business world, this is the equivalent of, “You have to make your employees happy before you can make your customers happy.” The key to happy customers is happy employees. 

And you already know what makes a happy employee—central to a happy, engaged, and productive employee is opportunities for career development. That’s why almost two-thirds of L&D pros say that Learning and Development is no longer a “nice to have” but rather a driving force for transformation. 

Second, it’s important to remember that learning and enablement are not just limited to employees! Enablement can and should be extended to your external audiences, including customers and partners. 

Investing in customer education can be a major differentiator for your business. Not only can a customer education program help your customers get up to speed on your products quickly and ease the customer onboarding process, it can also help you build and strengthen relationships with customers over time and elevate the overall customer experience with your brand. 

Happy customers lead to inspired customers, so investing in customer learning and education is equally as important as investing in your own team.  

You can tie learning and enablement to business impact 

Today, all teams are on the hook to show ROI and prove the value of investments. The good news here is that you can tie learning and enablement initiatives back to real business results, especially when you have the right technology in place. Here are some ways to show the impact of Enablement, L&D, and Customer Education programs on your business:

Revenue Enablement Metrics

1. Onboarding time. When companies invest in structured onboarding, they often see a decrease in time to onboard new reps. This is a great metric to quickly show the value of your enablement program
2. Impact on revenue. With the right reporting, you can highlight how your revenue enablement programs improve your sales team’s ability to get to quota.

L&D Metrics

1. Employee Engagement: Measure employee engagement before and after implementing an L&D program. You can also ask employees to rate satisfaction on individual courses and guides to keep a pulse on how engaged employees are. 
2. Internal job mobility. Companies that shine at internal mobility can retain employees for an average of 5.4 years. This can be a solid leading indicator for employee retention rates. 
3. Employee retention. Track retention rates over time to see how Learning and Development impact your ability to retain skilled talent. 

Customer Education Metrics

1. 1. Support requests. As customers leverage your program to onboard, measure the volume of support tickets coming in from those accounts 
   2. Product adoption rates. Measure if customers engaging with your program are more active with your product. This can be a leading indicator of customer churn/retention. 
   3. Customer Retention and Upsell.  After a customer has engaged in the program for a longer period, you’ll be able to tie retention and expansion rates back to customers that have engaged with your training. 

Learning is now a growth engine for businesses, and WorkRamp customers agree. In a recent interview, Joe Bast, Head of People at Laika said, “Learning is the only piece of competitive advantage that any company has outside of automation right now, and you (WorkRamp) have a platform that makes it possible.”

Invest in learning today—it’s a crucial element of your organization’s success.

Learn more about how learning can be a growth engine for your business, powered by WorkRamp. Request a demo to see WorkRamp’s All-in-One Learning Platform in action.