While it's natural to worry about employees leaving after you've invested time and money into training them, the risk of not training is even greater, according to Ed Flemmons, president and partner, Pool Contractors Supply, Memphis, TN, in The New Realities of Training.

“What happens if we train all these guys and they leave?” Flemmons says he once asked a mentor, who promptly replied: “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

“I took that to heart to mean we’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t, so we might as well train them,” he says.

Investing in the development of a new hire only to see that person leave for a competitor or another industry in a year or two might be a strain on resources, but the alternative is indeed far worse, according to Bob Cox, manager, talent, United Electric Supply, New Castle, DE, and chair of the National Association of Electrical Distributors’ Education and Development Council.

"What's the cost for someone staying who doesn't know what they're doing?" Cox says. "I get that frustration… but it's going to happen. What's the other option? Don't train them and keep them? That's worse."

Distributors are especially hesitant about training millennials, who don’t stay at jobs as long as Gen Xers or baby boomers, according to numerous studies. But because many younger workers are looking to develop professionally and personally, a robust training program might lessen their likelihood of looking for a new job.

“If you give them training, if you give them accolades, if you give them a coach, if you give them a mentor, if you give them feedback regularly, if you treat them as if they’re important and can bring something to your organization, that’s what they want,” says Mary Jawgiel, program director, Industrial Careers Pathway. “They want that feeling of being involved. And they want to grow.”

Read more about rethinking how you train employees in The New Realities of Training.