In the facilities management space, maintenance teams must manage a variety of complex scenarios across different types of equipment and handle a broad range of tasks. Investing in cross-training and upskilling for maintenance employees ensures anyone on the team can respond, increasing operational efficiency, reducing downtime, and improving employee performance.
Training can yield significant returns, and effectively measuring the return on investment can help justify the time and resources needed. In this blog, we’ll cover the benefits of cross-training and upskilling, key performance indicators you can use to measure the success of a training program, and how to calculate your return on investment.
Investing in Cross-Training and Upskilling
Cross-training and upskilling are essential for developing employees and preparing maintenance teams to meet expectations, increase flexibility, and improve performance, but they each have different roles. Cross-training involves training employees to perform tasks outside their primary job responsibilities and can equip them with skills in multiple areas. Upskilling focuses on enhancing current skills or acquiring advanced skills related to an employee’s existing job.
Not training employees properly creates several risks, including decreased productivity, mistakes, poor quality of work, and, even worse, injuries or accidents.
Inadequate training also leads to higher employee turnover. A study by the Conference Board found that 96% of respondents say it is important or very important for them to continuously develop their work-related skills.
Plus, the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that the second most frequent reason employees leave is a lack of career development or advancement. Employees are increasingly looking for career development opportunities, and SHRM recommends employers publicize career paths and focus on internal promotions as a cost-effective tool to reduce turnover. Employees who feel prepared and supported are less likely to become frustrated and leave the company, which ultimately leads to savings in recruitment and onboarding costs.
Setting Clear Objectives for Training Programs
Creating clear objectives for a training program is the first step in measuring your return on investment and communicating the benefits to managers, employees, and even investors. You can start by identifying how your training objectives align with the overall business goals.
As you develop your cross-training and upskilling program, determine which skills and performance areas need improvement. You can survey employees and look at backlogs or re-work situations. Then, define what you want to achieve. List the exact skills or knowledge employees will gain.
You also want to establish how you can measure success. This can include improving response time, reducing equipment downtime, minimizing the need for external providers, eliminating re-work situations, and increasing employee retention. You can also track how many employees complete the training and any certifications they receive.
Measuring the Return on Investment
A simple formula to calculate a ROI on training is to subtract the total training costs from the total monetary benefit of the training. Then, divide the net value by the total training cost to get the net value. To get your ROI percentage, multiply that number by 100.
While the formula is straightforward, there are several different figures you’ll want to consider, especially when calculating the tangible outcomes and intangible benefits of cross-training and upskilling employees.
Quantitative metrics—things you can measure—include:
- Less Equipment Downtime: Track improvements in equipment downtime, either in hours or in a percentage, before and after training.
- Completion Time: Measure how quickly work is completed before and after training. Faster completion times indicate improved skills and increased overall productivity.
- First-Time Fix Rate: Re-work can be costly and lead to increased frustration. Track any improvements in employees’ ability to fix issues on the first attempt.
- Skill Competency: Use a training program that can assess and track improvement in skill levels, employees’ capabilities, and employee certifications.
- Cost Savings: Calculate the reduction in maintenance costs due to fewer breakdowns, less reliance on external contractors, and increased efficiency. Cross training may also reduce the need to pay overtime because more workers can meet certain needs.
- Employee Turnover: Cross-training and upskilling employees can increase job satisfaction and retention.
- Fewer Injuries: Maintenance employees often work with complex systems, machinery, and potentially hazardous materials. It isn’t always easy to put a price on an accident that doesn’t happen, but you can track the number of incidents before and after training.
Qualitative metrics—the intangible benefits of training—include:
- Employee Satisfaction and Morale: Use surveys to track improvements in employee engagement and satisfaction before and after training. You can ask employees if they feel more confident and capable, if the skills learned apply to their daily tasks, and if they see a path to advance with the company
- Greater Flexibility: Having employees trained in multiple areas creates more flexibility when building employees’ schedules or planning for scheduled or unscheduled absences.
The benefits of cross-training and upskilling are not always immediate and can increase over time, so measuring the ROI of training should always be an ongoing process. Plus, you can use the data you collect to improve training, create career paths, and identify areas where additional training is needed.
Getting the Support You Need
Interplay Learning has created an immersive career development platform with training in facilities maintenance, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, safety and more.
Interplay’s online training includes expert-led video courses, hands-on 3D simulations, skills assessments, and custom learning paths to cross-train and upskill maintenance teams faster and more efficiently than traditional methods. You can tailor programs to your employees’ specific needs and establish clear paths for advancement.
Interplay’s skills assessments can also help you gauge each employee’s skills. Using the skills assessment, you can identify areas needing improvement to address individual or team skill gaps and assign specific courses and simulations based on their needs.
If you’re ready to cross-train and upskill your maintenance team with hands-on immersive learning and industry-recognized credentialing, contact us to learn more.
