The benefits of investing in certification for your employees are numerous.

Increased Employee Retention
It’s a commonly held myth that if you help your employees get certified, they’ll leave. This simply isn’t true. To the contrary, employees at companies that invest in their ongoing professional development are significantly less likely to leave a company than their counterparts at companies that do not invest in certification. When employers help finance certification training, employees feel a greater sense of loyalty. However, when forced to foot the bill themselves, they are very likely to find a job elsewhere.

Additionally, investing in certification enables companies attract better recruits. In today’s hot job market, prospective employees see training as a key benefit, and seek companies that will invest in it. One common question technical job applicants ask, “What continuing education or training programs do you offer?”

Increased Productivity and Decreased Downtime
From a financial perspective, investing in certification is extremely worthwhile. IS managers generally rate technical staff with certifications as more productive than their non-certified counterparts.

Moreover, companies with IS staff holding vendor and vendor-neutral IT certifications experience greater productivity around the help desk and shorter, less frequent downtime. For example, in a recent study completed by IDC, companies employing IS staff with MCP certification saved, on average, $2,500 per year per server. In this study the average company had 13 servers. The savings translated into a payback of roughly four months to recover the costs associated with training the employee. The study was based on an average cost of $14,000 to certify one employee including the direct costs of training, testing, and travel; the indirect costs of lost employee time; and any pay raises companies gave certified employees.

Quantify the Skills of Your Staff
Certification validates an employee’s level of proficiency. Anyone can claim they have a particular skill set, but a certification actually proves it. Employers can use this measure to quantify the collective skills of their staff, so that they can effectively manage their department or company’s skills inventory. This further enables managers to strategically plan for the future.

Bottom-Lines Benefits
Training improves the bottom line. A study by the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) compared companies that spent the most on training with companies that spent 60% less. They found that companies that spent the most achieved 36% higher gross profits per employee.