Amidst ‘crisis’, how do we seize an opportunity to retain talent through intentional development in the year ahead?
Welcome back! Here at Bolton, we’ve seen many of our clients and colleagues engaged in the topic of talent development. In this new work world, how do we approach talent differently? What considerations are important to collectively look at? In our first post on this topic (if you missed it, there is a link to catch up here), we talked about the opportunity in front of organizations to reinvent amidst crisis and engage their people in new, meaningful ways. Why does this matter? Data shows that the trend of people leaving their jobs— the ‘Great Resignation’— continued in the final months of 2021, with a consistent 3.4% of people resigning in November and December. This rate was substantially higher than in 2020 and, in some industries, these numbers were much higher. As many as 1 in 3 people in the accommodations industry resigned in the last four months of 2021. For those in food & drink, sports & recreation, and facilities, it was more than 1 in 4.
The numbers continue to tell us that we need a broad strategy to mitigate employee turnover on this scale. To contribute to this collective think-tank, we wanted to dive into a few additional ideas that we’ve seen be impactful with the hope that you can bring these suggestions back to your organization. Let’s dive in.
Development: HR’s Greatest Retention Tool
Perhaps the most obvious opportunity for organizations is to more clearly establish pathways for employee growth and development. An incredible 94% of employees reported they would stay longer at a company that was investing in helping them learn. Some successful employers find success with customizable training programs to give their people agency over their development. Others focus on creativity and problem solving. The right training program can even help poor retention trends in industries with high turnover. What does a company with that kind of buy-in to training and company loyalty look like?
Abbott might be an example. New hires go into two- to three-year development programs for either quality assurance, IT, finance, engineering, environmental health, or manufacturing. Employees can tailor their own programs to suit their personal interests and desired skill sets for their field. Depending on their choices, they will receive different guidance from others inside and outside of the company and embark on different courses.
Not every business has the resources available to develop a program of this scale and ambition. So how can organizations of all sizes accomplish similar results? Measures can start as simply as setting purposeful goals with each employee, and having leaders meet regularly to check in, provide relevant feedback, and encourage direct reports toward closing the gap on those accomplishments. We’ve heard this, and we know this, but how many of us have systems in place to successfully support this type of development? Consider making it a regular cadence for your teams this year – perhaps even consider investing in a performance management tool to create enthusiasm and visibility into this initiative for your team. Have leaders or specialists host learning sessions on topics inside and outside of work that are meaningful to employees. How do you determine what’s meaningful? Utilize the employee surveys we talked about in our last post, then create a yearly development plan tackling the topics that come in.
For organizations looking for deeper support, innovative companies like Kunik are offering People teams the opportunity to outsource culture initiatives, development being one of them. They can develop and lead curricula around topics that are most relevant to your workplace and goals.
This type of investment in development can have high impact, and keeps companies who do so very happy with their training. It also offers those same companies the opportunity to promote from within, leading into the next pillar of our proposed talent development strategy: leadership development.
Securing the Next Generation of Leaders with Coaching
While not every employee is destined for a career in management, is your company actively leaning in to identify those with promise? What could intentional development of the next generation look like? Keep in mind that the millennials and Gen Z workers coming up through your organization benefit more from a coach-player development relationship than generations past. Executive coaching is a great tool to consider and makes use of this approach.
In executive coaching, an experienced ‘career coach’ will work with leadership candidates to help them develop skills quickly. It emphasizes accountability, meaning that it helps teams achieve talent development goals faster through support and empowerment, not chastisement. This kind of program can be bent to many goals, from closing skill gaps to succession planning. With this approach, it’s important to find the right coaches. Not every leader has the right temperament. You may need to hire a consultant to come in and train leaders in coaching protocol, or design the coaching program that will serve your organization’s objectives with external partners.
This shifting economy holds many challenges. If we are to meet them we mustn’t be timid. It would seem that the organizations having the greatest success in talent retention and development are those that are willing to think creatively, and bring employee investment front and center in this conversation. Companies have an opportunity to earnestly offer new employees the means to improve themselves, and provide close support to those that are distinguishing themselves. Those future leaders will ensure that the decade ends better than it started.
