Businesses of all sorts are having difficulty attracting and retaining skilled workers to their operations. According to 15Five, a performance management platform, if you want to attract and retain skilled workers you need to have a clear track for advancement and professional development resources for them.
According to a 15Five survey, nearly half of the respondents said career growth, learning, and development are among the most important factors for remaining with a company. Yet 55.5% of employers don’t have career path plans in place for their employees, the company said.
Today’s younger workers and those of the future expect their workplaces to help them discover their strengths and talents, so they can leverage them to move into different positions within the corporation.
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To be able to do this, companies need to have assessment tools in place that determine employees’ talents and strengths. Managers also need to look beyond the employee’s current position and determine other areas within the company that might be a good fit for the employee’s skills, interests, and talents. Make sure your employees understand their career trajectory at your company, 15Five suggests. They will stay with your organization if they can see growth opportunity and can envision their future with you.
Surprisingly, it seems that more than a third of businesses are not promoting from within. That makes it difficult to retain people, but also could make it more difficult to attract top talent in the first place given the statistics about people wanting to know what their future with a company looks like.
Jeff Smith, vice president of strategic initiatives at 15Five, said, “The Great Resignation is not going away in the near term and reflects a permanent change: People want purpose and career paths along with their paychecks. Organizations need to ensure that the proper technologies and processes are in place to address their employees’ desire for self-discovery and career opportunities. Alignment with what motivates your employees will be the key differentiator as you compete to attract and retain the best talent.”
I think that sums things up pretty well. If we expect to attract top talent in the future, we need to move away from the practices of the past and make sure employees can see their place in the organization long term.
Jane Clark focuses on managing the member services operation at NationaLease as vice president of member services. She works to strengthen member relationships, reduce member costs, and improve collaboration within the NationaLease supporting groups.