A Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) is not just for business owners. It is a highly valuable qualification for employees as well. The better your employees understand your business, the better they will be at their jobs. It also means less time supervising employees and empowering them with decision-making abilities.
A fast-paced agile company requires employees who can make quick and smart decisions, lead teams, and make profitable business decisions. It would make your employees feel more like a team and on a similar level as their managers, which a progressive and modern organizational structure requires.
Not only will employees be better at their jobs, but they will also be able to master them. An MBA produces future business leaders rather than followers, which can benefit a growing organization.
Therefore, investing in your employees’ growth will bring innumerable advantages to your business. Let us look at some of the reasons why you should support your employees pursuing an MBA.
1. Develop and Retain In-House Talent
Hiring and retaining top talent requires time and effort. You do not want to lose valuable employees and decrease your company’s employee retention rate. It may leave a poor impression in the labor market, and hiring and training new people could cost more than retaining your existing employees.
One way to retain in-house talent is to invest in their qualifications. This may include providing incentives to pursue an MBA to learn fundamental concepts such as macro and microeconomics so they can participate in economic decision-making and other important business aspects.
Encouraging employees to participate in microeconomic business decision-making can boost their morale and confidence. These decisions mostly include knowing what is more important in the current circumstances, what to give up, and what to implement.
Motivating employees to pursue higher education is especially useful when you have to make promotional decisions. Promoting someone from within the team is a major part of building a loyal employee base. If you show your people that there is room for them to grow in the company personally and professionally, they will be more obliged.
Hence, supporting employees in their pursuit of education will reap more rewards than hiring an external graduate.
2. Get Immediate Solutions to Current Issues
A qualified employee can find immediate solutions to business problems by applying their knowledge. For example, an employee in sales pursuing an MBA with a specialization in sales and marketing will have a holistic perspective of the job function. That employee will be capable of solving customer service problems better than lower qualified sales professionals will, with the ability to take the initiative and implement creative solutions. Moreover, their sales pitch and customer handling will significantly improve, resulting in high-quality customer service.
Another major benefit of an MBA is that students can apply the knowledge gained in the classroom even during the program. The better your employees perform at their jobs, the better quality output your organization will produce. A DJS research report found that 78% of employees with an MBA found significant improvement in their work during the program.
3. Deepen Your Organization’s Management
An MBA will help your organization produce a high-quality management team. The program equips individuals with the tools required to make sound managerial judgments based on incomplete information, assess market insights, industry trends, and ways to adopt best industry practices.
Moreover, it boosts people management skills and the ability to coordinate with internal and external teams. Mid-level managers play a vital role in collaborating with senior management and communicating with the stakeholders. A supply chain manager, for example, will require exceptional resource allocation and team management skills, with the ability to contract with suppliers and distributors. A professional qualification will boost their ability to handle multiple managerial tasks simultaneously.
It will result in your organization producing the highest quality of skilled labor with exceptional managerial capabilities. It will set your firm apart in its ability to manage operations with internal efforts.
4. Incorporate International Perspective
Expanding your operations with employees who acquire an international business perspective during their MBA program will be much easier. The program provides specialized insights to tap into international markets with the required laws and resource planning.
Having employees with a sound understanding of conducting international business can help expand your business while cutting costs and enhancing productivity and quality.
Your employees will get the practical hands-on knowledge and experience required to understand how global markets work by the industry leaders and get the required exposure. They may even build a network of people, which they can use as resources in expanding the business.
Apple Inc. is a great example of sustainable international operations. It has successfully outsourced all its basic functions in the international markets so that it can focus on its core competency: innovation. It was only possible with a team of highly qualified managers and intellectuals. You can build a similar sustainable international business model with qualified staff to help take the organization to the next step.
5. Develop Soft Skills
If an employee is great at the job but needs to gain soft skills such as communication, presentation, or teamwork, it is time to invest in such skills. It will be a pity to pass on a perfectly good employee for a managerial role simply because they lack such skills. They will feel demotivated and left behind.
An MBA program encourages students to work on group and solo projects, make presentations, and build interpersonal acumen. Your employees may have ingenious ideas but need help to present them. Therefore, soft skills play a major role in improving an employee’s performance and turning them into an asset for the business.
More importantly, you will invest in people with great potential to inspire others. Being able to inspire others is what makes good managers into great leaders. Developing soft skills is what helps them achieve that potential.
Conclusion
Supporting employees pursuing an MBA will only result in increased productivity, quality output, enhanced organizational leadership, and sound management. Moreover, it will help retain internal talent and boost employee morale and motivation.
Moreover, you will play a major role in turning employees into valuable assets for the company. Therefore, it is a win-win for you and your employees.
