The Hidden Costs of Not Upskilling: Why Developer Training Matters

Assess Skill Gaps

Before you buy courses and hire trainers, you need to understand how your company’s goals impact the skills your team needs. Take heart in the fact that 77% of employees say they’re willing to upskill so they’re better equipped to meet and exceed goals.

Stakeholders like senior executives, project managers and team leads will provide valuable input and help you build a business case for training. More than half of decision makers report a gap in skill sets, so your stakeholders are likely to see the wisdom in training.

You can conduct skills assessments using quizzes, coding exercises or performance reviews. Analyze the results to identify gaps and tailor the training you offer accordingly.

Determine the Training Approach and Budget

There are different ways to train your dev team including in-person training, subscriptions to e-learning platforms, and conferences and workshops. Your choice will depend on the skills and knowledge gaps you identified earlier and the resources you have.

Consider what works best for your team members; some developers prefer hands-on training while others prefer self-paced online courses. As you determine the cost of training, factor in travel expenses, accommodation and equipment.

Measure the Effects of Your Training

Unless you measure the results, you can’t determine whether you’re providing the right training or whether it’s having the results you expect. Therefore, before the training even starts, determine how you’ll measure the results to determine its effectiveness.

When you’re choosing your KPIs for the effectiveness of the training, think about the downstream impact of developer training. Metrics to track might include code quality, lead time, deployment frequency, turnover rates and employee satisfaction.

Key Takeaways

The ever-evolving technological landscape makes continuous learning and upskilling a crucial part of any development team’s success. Neglecting developer training leads to hidden costs like delayed projects, low-quality output and decreased team morale.

Creating a well-rounded training plan and prioritizing ongoing education and development helps you boost your team’s skills, productivity and overall success.

Training is a business investment with a cost attached — but not training costs more. Here’s what to keep in mind as you create your upskilling budget:

• Outdated skills and knowledge can lead to decreased productivity, output and revenue, all of which impact your company’s market share, ability to innovate and reputation.
• Without upskilling opportunities, you might grapple with employee turnover as top talent leaves, new talent chooses other options and employee morale suffers.
• Offering training and development is a competitive advantage in recruitment and retention. There’s a direct line between trained, productive employees and company profits.
• The longer you delay upskilling your team, the more catch-up training they’ll need — which costs more time and money.

Looking to hear from a community of your peers? Join other engineering managers discussing developer upskilling and other topics in the Kodeco community forum.

About the Author

Mo Shehu writes for engineering and marketing teams building great products. He’s a computer science and informatics grad, has lived in six countries, and is big on remote work. Connect with him on LinkedIn.