It’s no secret that companies all over the globe are racing to adapt to a rapidly changing and increasingly remote workforce. Companies are also identifying a significant gap between the current digital skill sets their employees have and the skills they need to be successful. The more the world of work changes, the larger that digital skills gap becomes.

With Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, we support companies that need to accelerate their digital transformations and grow their employees’ skill sets. Employees can access our free, on-demand, and expert-led training anytime, from anywhere.

Employees can use Trailhead to learn new skills, earn Salesforce credentials, and add to company value and productivity.

The real impact of Trailhead, measured by IDC

IDC is a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. Salesforce commissioned IDC to survey more than 2,400 professionals who administer Salesforce applications or develop on the Salesforce Platform.

Their study, The Impact of Salesforce Training and Certification, revealed that companies with skilled and certified employees were not only more agile and efficient but also benefited from increased employee impact.

Want an agile and efficient workforce? Continuous learning is key.

If you want a more agile and efficient business, you need a team of Salesforce-skilled experts who continuously grow their Salesforce knowledge.

Employees must be able to configure dashboards and reports quickly, visualize available data for greater insights, leverage declarative functionality to create programmatic solutions, and automate business processes.

What we learned from the IDC study:

• 68% greater efficiency — Salesforce-certified professionals with additional training showed 68% more efficiency, leading to faster time to value.
• 30% greater speed — Salesforce-certified professionals with additional training could map process requirements 30% faster, leading to faster solution development and quicker time to business value.

An investment in Salesforce Certifications has a positive effect on both the business as a whole and its employees.

Certification creates more impactful employees

You’ve got an experienced team, and Salesforce Certifications are a great way to prove it—while helping them grow their careers even further. Certifications are also a powerful resource because they translate to greater productivity and faster time-to-value for your business.

According to the IDC study, Salesforce Certified Administrators are faster. In fact, they’re:

• 15% faster when building reports, dashboards, and workflows.
• 15% faster when troubleshooting user account issues.

And speaking of being more productive and efficient, Salesforce Certified Developers also showed a dramatic impact on businesses in both areas.

Salesforce Certified Developers:

• Are three times faster when developing code.
• Make 10% fewer coding errors.
• Show 60% more efficiency at reusing code.
• Are 90% more productive when building code.

Ready to get more agile and efficient?

This has been a challenging time for all businesses, and pivoting to digital isn’t always easy. But there are two important steps you can take today to help your business succeed as you evolve:

1. Use Trailhead’s continuous learning to help your employees skill up.
2. Invest in your team with Salesforce Certifications.

Your team can start learning for free on Trailhead or register for a Trailhead Virtual Bootcamp or expert-led class for insights and best practices from Salesforce experts.

Then, check out Salesforce Certifications and superbadges to discover all the ways you can validate your teams’ expertise.

*Source: IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Salesforce, Increase Organizational Efficiency, Agility, and Employee Value: The Impact of Salesforce Training and Certification, doc #US47571521, April 2021