Develop Your Employees & Retain Top Talent

It costs roughly $9,000 to retain an employee. While that may seem like a lot of money, it costs in comparison between $25,000-$100,000 to train and ramp up a new employee and adjust them to the company culture.

A 2021 Gallup poll* showed an increase in unengaged workers worldwide. Disengagement is seen as one of the explanations for ‘The Great Reignation’ or ‘The Great Reshuffle’ that has been happening over the past few years. The Gallup poll results indicate that many workers struggle to see the value in their role/company and choose to find a job elsewhere. 

The poll results also show that engaged workers are more likely to stay at a company for an extended period of time. Organizations that want to prevent churn and retain top talent must focus on improving people management skills and engagement.

Leaders don’t have to go far to find out how to improve people management skills and engagement within their teams. Research conducted by Salesforce** in the summer of this year shows that employees, especially young employees, want more on-the-job training and professional development to bolster their professional skills. Professional development programs don’t just strengthen professional skills but also increase engagement**.

Invest In Your Employees

As the rate of change in the business world increases exponentially, there is a need for constant innovation and a more digitally-savvy workforce. Organizations can do this by investing in and developing the employees they already have. 

A great way to invest in and develop employees is via online training. Professional development courses are available on websites like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Google. If your employees have the ability to pursue continuing education or professional development through the organization, encourage them to take advantage of it and take time to develop professional skills. 

Investing in the professional development of employees is also a great way to retain top talent. By providing on-the-job training and opportunities to learn new skills, employees will discover what they are passionate about and where they perform best in the organization. This process leads to a more robust and productive workforce.

Commit to Life Long Learning

Providing professional development for your employees includes more than just providing on-the-job training and opportunities to learn new skills. Organizations have to encourage employees to develop a mindset of constant professional growth.

The Society for Human Resource Management published an article*** earlier this month to provide some best practices for developing a growth mindset to grow professionally and remain competitive in the job market. Let’s review three of the best practices. 

Commit to Life Long Learning: Taking online courses, or taking on tasks that force an employee to learn new skills, demonstrates to an employer that the employee is still vested in professional growth. 

Develop a Professional Network: Does the employee have a role they are interested in? Encourage that employee to find a mentor in that role currently and ask if they can job shadow for a few hours or a day. Regardless of if the employee wants to work in their current position or change roles/organizations at some point, it’s important to have a professional network. A professional network will allow space to discuss challenges in professional development.

Embrace Change: There’s no doubt that change happens a lot quicker than it used to, especially in the business world. Employees can get caught up in change in a negative way. The ability to pivot and flow with the pace of change will set an employee apart from their colleagues.

Recap & What’s Next

The global economy may be in a period of economic slowdown, but the need for organizations to innovate and evolve doesn’t change. Based on the series of articles shared in this post, the best way to remain competitive is to invest in employees' professional development. Retaining top talent takes hard work, but it’s worth it. Employees who are happy in their roles have higher productivity levels and work harder**, which is a win for employers. 

Employees can take an online course or participate in a project in another department that forces them to learn something new. Also, employees should commit to life-long learning, develop a professional network, and embrace change. 

Next week, we will review more best practices for your HR team and organization. We would love to hear from you in the comments about the articles and information discussed above.

In what ways do you encourage your employees to grow professionally? 

*Robison, B. V. G. A. J. (2022, September 8). The “Great Resignation” Is Really the “Great Discontent.” Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/351545/great-resignation-really-great-discontent.aspx

**A Recession-Ready Talent Strategy: Give Your Team New Skills. (2022, October 13). The 360 Blog From Salesforce. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/employee-upskilling-career-boost/

***Six Ways To Recession-Proof Your Career. (2022, October 17). Blog.SHRM.org. https://blog.shrm.org/blog/six-ways-to-recession-proof-your-career