Why You Should Consider Paying for Employees’ Certifications

Employee retention plays a major role in the success of most companies, so you should always be thinking about how to retain your best IT employees. One of the best ways to keep your IT staff happy and productive is by paying for certifications so they can keep their skills up to date. Why?

Certification is Valuable

You can measure the value of certifications in real dollars, opportunity cost and perceived value of the employee. In most cases, helping employees to keep their certifications current enhances their personal value as well as the value of your organization in terms of its human capital.

Certification Can Raise Staff Morale

Share your reasons for offering to pay for certifications if they include wanting to help your IT staff members improve their skill sets and move up the career ladder or trying to improve the overall professionalism of your environment. Most employees prefer to work in an environment where employee development and training are encouraged and supported.

It Can Save You Money

It’s cheaper to certify existing staff than to hire certified staff as consultants.

It Can Make You Money

Having an IT staff with greater or improved skill sets may lead to new client engagements and projects.

Still not convinced? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do clients/prospects look at your staff certifications before making decisions?
• Does your company have employee acquisition problems?
• Does your company have employee retention problems?
• Does your company have negative staff morale issues?
• Does your competition pay for certification?
• Is there a high, perceived value for the certification?

If you answered yes to four or more of those questions, it probably makes sense to pay for your IT staff to obtain or update their professional certifications.

You may be afraid that your employees will leave your company for greener pastures after receiving their certification. But you can prevent that. Your policy on paying for staff certification should include a legal agreement that requires the employee to work for your company for at least “x” number of months after certification is completed.

Still not convinced? Call the IT staffing experts at Triumph Services. We can tell you what certifications are important and how you can best spend your training and development dollars.