Is formal training important to ecommerce professionals?

There's no doubt about it: if you want to progress in ecommerce, you need to keep learning. And who doesn't want to progress? 60% of our 2017 ecommerce salary survey respondents told us that 'opportunity to progress' was essential in a role. A further 34% said that it was important.

As continual learning enables progression, we wanted to know: are opportunities to learn an essential employee benefit for ecommerce professionals?

Is formal training essential in a role?

In this year's salary survey questionnaire, we asked respondents to tell us what's essential in a role. When answering, they had to rank 21 factors as either 'essential', 'important', 'neutral' or 'not important'. 1 of these factors was formal training.

Formal training includes structured learning programmes offered both within the company and by external training providers. Covering everything from CIM courses and postgraduate study to in-house training programs, it offers professionals a chance to develop and grow their skills… But is it what digital professionals feel they most want and need in an ecommerce job?

When looking at the results of this year's salary survey questionnaire, formal training doesn't make it into our respondents' top 5 essentials. In fact, it doesn't even appear in the top 10. Coming in at 15th position, it might seem like this 'essential' isn't so essential. However, when we review the numbers by seniority level, we see a different story.

Assistant level respondents valued formal training above all other seniority levels, with 47% believing it to be essential. And it's easy to understand why. Typically, these assistants will be graduates and apprentices, eager to build their knowledge so that they're able to progress. Behind assistants, we see executives and managers, both at 16%. Responses drop at head of to director / VP level and then increase slightly as we move from board level to owner / partner. Once again, this is hardly surprising, with the majority of mid to senior level professionals having received formal opportunities to learn, enabling them to climb the career ladder. Board level and owners/partners might now be seeking out new learning opportunities on topics not completely related to the role that they previously held. Examples of this could include legal regulations for business, business operations, finance, and so on.

Important vs. essential: feelings on formal training

If formal training isn't essential to everyone, is it important to the majority of ecommerce professionals? 50% of respondents told us that it was and when we review the answers by seniority level, we see an interesting trend:

Between 17 - 19% of assistants, executives, managers and head ofs listed formal learning opportunities as important, while 9-10% of all board level, director/VPs and owners/partners agree. The split between seniority levels remains fairly even.

Who doesn't think formal training is important?

While the majority (79%) felt that formal training was important or essential, just 7% believed that it wasn't important at all and 28% ranked it as 'neutral'. Let's take a look at who thinks training is neutral or not important by seniority level...

Are formal training opportunities a good employee benefit?

There's no simple yes or no answer to this question. If you're a hiring manager or a HR professional, it's worth looking at and beyond the data that we've presented here. Each and every person that you interview and manage is unique. While one head of might not want formal learning opportunities, another one might... so if you can offer it as a benefit, don't shy away from it.

Is formal training important to you? Tell us more...

We'd love to hear your thoughts on formal training - if you're a HR superstar, a hiring manager or an ecommerce professional, tell us what you think in the comments below.