October 7 2024 Kimberly Ryan Limited Articles
Employee Retention And Career Development
A company with a high employee turnover should cause a great deal of worry to an employer. As the need for talented employees grows, the option to jump ship for a ‘better company’ becomes more appealing, thereby making employee retention even more challenging. When employees are probed about job hunting, they are quick to identify their desire for better pay, benefits, career advancement or more challenges. Career development programs can address these concerns to reduce the heartaches of employee turnover.
In a survey carried out by HR Digest, employees were asked what was most important to them aside from the total rewards. Your guess is as good as ours…Career Development. The big question that begs answers is - What initiatives are you taking as employers to make sure that your employees are experiencing an upward trajectory in their career path while working for you? If you say “None” or you have no specific answer, we urge you to take this one seriously. If you can have good compensation and benefit packaging coupled with other minor perks, there is a need for you take career growth for employees’ retention seriously.
Lack of career progression opportunities is one of the top reasons for employees to leave their current jobs. Career development programs can address these concerns to reduce turnover. An increase in employee retention of highly performing employees can be achieved from applying a to mix and match of some of our suggestions to your existing programs
- There are certain career development initiatives that you as an employer can take to reduce employee retention. As the demand for talent is rising, companies are building career advancement strategies as a cost-effective way for retaining employees. Strategies include paying for various classes that employees attend for enhancing their skills, mapping paths to target positions and also recruiting internal career coaches and mentors. This may seem like preparing candidates so that they can be poached by competitors or other companies, but in fact, such initiatives raise employee morale and makes them more loyal towards your organization.
- Open the door to communication about careers. Annual or other regular performance evaluation talks should be the norm. Some employees shy away from discussing the topic of career development or enhancement with their managers. However, such talks can be healthy and should be encouraged so that employees feel valued and empowered. Also, they have a sense of direction based on the feedback given by managers.
- Promoting the concept of career lattice - Vertical, Lateral, Enrichment, Realignment have been proven to be better for employees who are looking to move to different fields as they progress in their career path. It provides flexibility for progress, as any employee can make movement in either direction – up or sideways - every movement will be considered as progress. Allow personalizing of the career progression pace according to employee’s wishes and current situation. Also, the company shall focus on results as well as the number of hours spent working
Effective career pathing in the organization is not about helping an employee fill in an open role rather career development should focus on employee’s growth and learning and how it ties into meeting your company’s needs.
Employers should focus on these building blocks for their employee’s professional development:
- Identifying strengths and competencies
- Identifying skill gaps
- Bridge these gaps through learning interventions
- Considering a few career path options based on the above
At Kimberly Ryan, we understand that employees aspire for an upward career trajectory and have a career path planning management in place. Over the years we have made it our goal. We practice it by ensuring our employees achieve an all-round career development. Our next article will tackle on why having a career development plan is not enough, there is need for employers to have a career development cum training and development plan. Always remember that you have to take responsibility of your employee development. Stay tuned to this page as we bring you the details about adopting this angle to retain your employees.
Cheers!
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