Can organisations secure the rare commodity of employee longevity?
Businesses are increasingly struggling to retain talent as employee satisfaction sits at an all-time low. In fact, according to the latest research from Kelly Services, nearly a quarter (23%) of employers have noticed a dip in employee satisfaction in the last year. Meanwhile, a third (33%) of employees are “very likely” to leave their job in the next year.
As someone who has been working for the same company for over 25 years, after being impressed as a customer and then deciding to join as an employee, I have a strong opinion about what the ‘secret ingredients’ are for employee longevity. This is something that MHR is very strong at, too – I am not the only one at my company who has been there for the long haul; numerous colleagues have been working at MHR since its inception, so I’m also familiar with how contagious and self-perpetuating long-term retention can be, its positive impact on workplace culture, and how this impacts customer satisfaction and retention.
A large part of employees feeling dissatisfied stems from a lack of career development opportunities, which leads to the belief that the only way to move up is by moving out. According to job search site Indeed, one of the main reasons people choose to leave their company is a lack of progression opportunities. Yet, the number of employees receiving regular off-the-job workplace training and development fell by nearly in third (30%) over the last two decades. In an age when retaining employees is increasingly complex, the key to unlocking employee longevity lies in three things: 1) offering well-organised, authentic training programmes at all career levels; 2) assisting employees in crafting careers; and 3) ensuring the right culture, which fosters a true sense of belonging.
My focus for this article is the training programmes referenced above. So, how do companies go about achieving this in practice? And what can they expect the benefits to look like?
Connecting the dots
While most organisations will offer some form of training, its scheduling and execution can be disparate. Individual training sessions may be delivered on an ad-hoc basis to groups of employees in various stages and roles with diverging professional needs and career goals. Unsurprisingly, this training mode is rarely tracked – or, indeed, traceable – and produces inconsistent results for employee development and progression.
Companies should ensure their training is more compartmentalised and well organised into programmes. By clearly organising and structuring training within a single, centralised system, businesses will make resources for employee growth more accessible. It will allow them to learn and adopt a diverse work skillset and map out their career path as they like, while, in turn, helping employers keep abreast with the expectations of the modern-day employee.
When employees have the means to develop and grow, there is also a huge positive impact on company culture. Not only does providing such opportunities demonstrate the level of commitment the company has to its employees, showing it truly cares, but the benefits this brings to retention means that people really begin to build long-term relationships with their colleagues. This, in turn, drives retention even further, closing the positive feedback loop. When employees are happy with their team and their career plans within a company, a there is no need for them to look elsewhere.
Quality AND Quantity
Streamlining and organising is only one portion of effective training. Quality content also matters. Content on these courses needs to be up-to-date, relevant, and practical, while the delivery needs to be engaging, clear, and easily digestible. Additionally, review exercises and mini-assessments at the end of each course can help employees to truly assimilate and apply the information and skills that they’re learning, while enabling their managers to clearly see their progress. That can only aid their progression in the long-term. Employers can build an added element of visibility into their training programmes, allowing them to suggest, track and record workplace learning in a way that means they can develop personalised learning strategies for each team member.
Reaping the rewards
My exceptionally long tenure at MHR is not a fluke, and businesses that invest in streamlined, qualitative training will also see large numbers of employees with increased loyalty and desire to remain in the business for longer. Like MHR, they may even be housing two future life partners who will go on to marry and stay at the company together for another 30+ years. Similarly, others may see an intern progress through various roles, eventually becoming CEO down the line. The finer details of the results will differ for each business – even within the same company, no two employees’ stories are identical – but there will undoubtedly be positive results.
Companies are having an increasingly hard time with talent retention and those that are committed to addressing this will look to revamp and enhance their existing training courses, by streamlining and organising these into programmes that are more accessible, authentic, and trackable. With training that is current, and personalised to employees’ individual needs and career aspirations, people at all levels will focus on thriving and climbing, right where they are.
