The war for talent has never been more competitive. Companies are retaining top talent and attracting competitive candidates, while employees are working on their skills to increase their employability.
In Singapore, fresh graduates take advantage of SkillsFuture Series courses to uncover talent and pursue skills mastery by taking comprehensive training programs and certification courses. This increases their chances of getting hired in their chosen companies and discovering great employment opportunities.
Today, employers are seeing an increase in employee turnover. The most common reason is the lack of learning opportunities and professional development. To address this concern, we’ll discuss the two main strategies to retain employees and ways to keep them learning and engaged.
Create opportunities for professional growth
In a survey published in Linkedin’s Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees said they’re likely to stay at a company that invests in their professional growth. Losing employees because of limited learning opportunities is the worst reason for employee turnover. People who constantly look for learning opportunities are often the best employees. They’re always curious, engaged, smart, and likely to take risks and bring creative solutions. So if these people lack stimulation, they’ll quench their curiosity somewhere else.
Employers who don’t provide employee training opportunities are missing out on many things, such as the opportunity to address skills gaps in the workplace and the global skills shortage. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report, 75% of companies are having recruitment difficulties because they can’t find the right people with the skills they’re looking for.
Instead of hiring new applicants, the best solution is to upskill the existing workforce by providing internal training opportunities. This strategy can only be successful if the training is interactive, engaging, and relevant to employees’ job roles.
To encourage top talents to stay, you need a well-designed learning and development program to capture their interest. You can’t just come up with a training program overnight and expect the problem to be solved independently. Learning is a never-ending process, so investing time, money, and effort is important.
Most employers see company training as a waste of company money. They think it doesn’t affect turnover and employee performance. The truth is, successful workplace training depends on the type of program and structure. You have to ensure it delivers results, understands employees’ learning preferences, and engaging enough to encourage participation.
Training, upskilling, and continuous learning opportunities come in different forms. Just make sure the training suits the participant’s goals, profiles, and needs.
Hire leaders, not bosses
Most recent studies reveal that bad managers are the main reason millennials and Gen Z employees keep leaving companies. The young generation of employees today is now looking beyond salary raises, benefits, and other employee perks. They want a manager they look up to and know how to value and recognize their abilities.
Everyone aspires to be the boss, but only a few are deserving leaders. But keep in mind that people follow real leaders and abandon mean bosses. This is the reason why most employees use their bosses as the reason why they left their job, regardless of high salary and employment opportunity.
If you want to keep employees and inspire learning in the workplace, it’s important to include leadership in your retention strategy. Good leaders have a clear direction for the future. They keep employees up-to-date with company happenings and the plans of the company. They should also have a good attitude when confronted by challenges. They make sure everyone is in good work condition instead of putting all the stress and pressure on employees.
Great leaders also desire to bring high-quality experience for both employees and customers. They also value their people and view them as the most important asset of the company. Lastly, they also inspire confidence by making employees feel good about their work and abilities.
Besides training employees, employers should also train their managers to handle the human aspects of their roles. This means teaching workplace leaders how to motivate and encourage different types of employees in terms of personality traits, stress management, conflict management, and crisis management.
The bottom line
In the end, employee retention is all about knowing how to treat your people properly. Employees aren’t robots, working only for salary. They also care about their career, job, environment, and company. When designing an employee retention strategy, remember our discussion above to increase your chances of developing your workforce.
