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ATD Blog

Employee Engagement Is at an All-Time Low, But Virtual Training Can Give It a Boost

Thursday, July 8, 2021
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According to the latest Gallup report, only 36 percent of employees feel engaged in their workplace. That’s a problem. Consider a few other statistics on the current state of employee engagement:

  • Half of employees (51 percent) are disengaged at work, and 13 percent are actively disengaged, which means they feel miserable enough to spread their negativity.
  • Companies with a highly engaged workforce have 21 percent higher profitability.
  • Companies with a highly engaged workforce enjoy 17 percent higher productivity.
  • An employee engagement study found that companies lose $450–$550 billion each year due to weakened productivity and increased turnover from disengaged workers.
  • In one survey, 80 percent of respondents said that learning and development opportunities help them feel more engaged at work.

We hope these numbers inspire you to increase employee engagement at your company by offering your staff meaningful and personalized learning opportunities through virtual training.

Why Virtual Training?

Differentiated and personalized. Virtual training is a great solution for companies because it enables them to offer differentiated training experiences for their employees. Mass training conference models usually take a one-size-fits-all approach that is ill-fitting for many participants. The content often seems irrelevant to a large portion of attendees and makes them feel like they wasted their time.

Janne Hietala, chief commercial officer at Valamis, asserts that offline training courses are “not personalized enough” for current and upcoming generations, stating that virtual training software can use AI to “personalize and contextualize” the virtual learning delivered to employees in breakout sessions, using information gleaned about their “experiences, backgrounds, and goals.”

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This tactic helps employees feel valued and understood. They recognize their employer’s willingness to invest in them and are therefore more likely to a see a future with the organization and stay engaged and invested in the company’s success.

Up-to-date and relevant. The whole world is accessible online, as evidenced by the MIT Technology Review’s claim that the average American spends 24 hours a week online. With remote work trending in such an upward trajectory, that number is bound to increase.

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Organizations are moving to embrace online strategies (ordering, billing, communications, and so on), so traditional face-to-face training conferences don’t align with current business practice. Employees who think their employers are old fashioned or behind the times are less likely to be engaged and more likely to look for new opportunities.

However, if you offer them a slick, state-of-the-art virtual learning environment from which they garner relevant skills they can clearly tie to their career growth and development, they will more firmly believe in themselves and in you as an employer.

Jigsaw Interactive has all the tools you need to promote employee engagement through specialized virtual training. Our virtual training solution cultivates employee engagement, confidence, capability, and retention. When your employees are engaged, they are loyal. When they are loyal, they are productive. When they are productive, you are profitable. And when you are profitable, everyone benefits.

About the Author

Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Jigsaw Ginger has more than 25 years’ experience in the healthcare technology sales industry. She has worked in both profit and nonprofit organizations, with experience in sales, marketing, business development, administration, and operations. Ginger’s interactive management style has led sales teams to consistently exceed their sales goals. Her primary focus and sales technique is to ensure quality customer service while identifying customer needs and matching them to specific solutions. Ginger’s experience ranges from working with smaller organizations to leading multiple sales and marketing teams for large companies such as Caremark International, NDCHealth, RPM, and CareMedic. She is also an entrepreneur; she helped start several companies and led the growth of those companies through sales and marketing. 

1 Comment
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For three decades, the Gallup12 has reported the majority of employees are not engaged. No questions about customers or company economics. Maybe we are asking the wrong questions or have the wrong premise?
This article shows research with Harvard Business School with hundreds of companies, on "economic engagement", moving employees from hired hands to trusted partners. This doubles profit growth. https://www.inc.com/bill-fotsch/a-key-strategy-to-double-your-profitable-growth.html
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