Engaged employees make companies better. Gallup stats show that companies with more engaged employees are 23% more profitable than those ranking in the bottom quartile of engaged companies.

There are a lot of factors that go into happy and engaged employees – culture, management, and career development among them. At DMi, we’re proud to have earned honors from Gallup, Inc.com, and the Philly Inquirer for our workplace excellence, and we’re happy to share that effective training is one of our most important initiatives in building employee engagement.

In this post, we’ll chat about:

• the benefits of training in employee engagement

• components of effective training programs

• the role of managers in creating and maintaining effective training methods

Let’s get started.

The benefits of training in employee engagement

I’ve worn a few hats at DMi; I’ve been an employee and a manager, and now I’m helping spearhead training development across the entire organization. I’ve learned that engaged employees are happier, more productive, and more loyal to the company (not coincidentally, DMi’s employee retention rates are extremely high in the agency world; the average tenure of all DMi employees who have been with the agency at least a year is five years, with 10% of DMiers boasting over 10 years here).

From a manager’s perspective, strong retention rates are critical for keeping clients happy. And engaged employees play a huge part in building a strong company culture that serves as the glue of what we do.

Components of effective training programs

So, what goes into effective training? We aim to set employees up for success from the first day in their role with a month-long onboarding process that includes four one-week stages: learning, shadowing, practicing, and doing. The full breakdown:

• Week 1: The employee learns through training in our LMS (learning management system) and meets the team.
• Week 2: The employee shadows team members doing the tasks they’ll eventually take on.
• Week 3: The employee practices those tasks, with team members shadowing them for oversight.
• Week 4: The employee starts doing the tasks on their own.

This approach does more than help new DMiers feel (rightfully) that the organization values them enough to put a lot of effort into their growth and development; it helps them build skills and a sense of empowerment from being able to quickly contribute to the team’s success.

Training doesn’t stop at onboarding, of course; in 2023, we rolled out monthly workshops (some company-wide and some manager-focused) on topics including communication, prioritization, efficiency, email and calendar management, and more. In 2024, we’re building out a calendar with quarterly company initiatives, along with new manager-specific training and workshops. The topics in focus come directly from employee surveys that bring specific challenges and favorite subjects to the surface for us to tackle as a group.

Beyond onboarding and ongoing opportunities for development, we’ve learned that it’s important to keep in mind that everyone has a different way of learning. Understanding and adjusting to the ways each individual most effectively absorbs information is imperative to helping them succeed.

The role of managers in effective training

Patience, transparency, and well-delivered feedback are the hallmarks of the managers who train their employees most effectively at DMi.

Whether one on one, in team settings, or in company-wide shout-outs, managers are encouraged to deliver positive feedback to their employees. Just as important is our approach to conveying constructive feedback. We don’t follow the “feedback sandwich” method here; we start off by discussing initiatives that are going well and then share constructive criticism on areas employees can improve, with specific examples to help keep the feedback both relevant and digestible.

Creating opportunities for growth

At DMi, “creating opportunities for growth” is one of the tenets we live by. Whether the results of our training are skills gained, promotions earned, rapport built with teammates and clients, or all of the above, our approach is designed to uphold this mission every day.

If you’re interested in joining a team that puts a huge emphasis on training and developing its employees, keep an eye on our careers page. We love bringing new DMiers into the fold.