If you’re running a business, then you’re dependent on the talent of your employees. In some industries, the ability to recruit, train, and retain the right talent is imperative. High levels of staff turnover can impose a burden on a business that might otherwise thrive. Read about helping your employees develop:
One of the most often cited causes of employee turnover is a lack of perceived opportunity for advancement. In other words, if the job feels like a dead end, then the talented and ambitious employees will leave. Those staff who do remain might lack the drive required to push the business forward. You’re selecting for indifference, at best.
The antidote to this is to provide an environment in which employees believe that they can grow and thrive. But how can such an environment be cultivated?
Create development plans
Professional development can be accelerated with the help of the right plan. By guiding your employees through the process of planning their careers, and helping to steer them along the way, you can create an empowering sense of purpose – while accelerating their progression. You can pinpoint gaps in a skillset, and offer the training required to fill those gaps.
Encourage upskilling
Employees might take the initiative and seek out their own training opportunities. But you can make this easier by providing those opportunities in the workplace. The training you provide can be more easily accessible, and it can be customised to the extent that it is relevant to your employees and their current positions. The right learning software can help keep them on track while limiting costs for the company.
Hire internally
Where employees feel that there is a path forward for them within the company, they’ll be incentivised to be more productive and to stick with you. Hiring from within can also help you to cut the cost of recruiting. It’s often much easier to bring in an existing member of the team, who is already familiar with the technicalities and culture of the workplace, than to onboard someone new.
Of course, it’s not always possible to hire from within. But it should always be the default option when a vacancy arises.
Support their wellbeing
When employees are struggling, either physically or mentally, then they’re unlikely to be productive. Moreover, where employees perceive that their colleagues are struggling unaided, this can have a generalised depressive effect on morale. Put simply, it’s better to be in a workplace where you’re looked after.
Providing opportunities for exercise, including cycle-to-work schemes, guided meditation, and a gym, can be enormously beneficial. The same is true of mental health support, particularly in stressful positions. Along with driving down absenteeism, perks like these will ensure that your employees feel secure in their environment, which in turn will provide a firm foundation for personal and professional development.
