Employee Retention – How Investing in Development Creates Long-Term Success

Your business can provide the best cutting-edge technology. You can invest in top-notch tools to facilitate your processes and increase efficiency. You can build a state-of-the-art facility to execute your operations. The fact of the matter is, none of these things will matter if you do not take care of your PEOPLE!

Ask yourself, if I invest in this piece of infrastructure, who is going to run it? Who will manage that brand new 50,000 square foot facility? Who will be there to determine what to do with all the newfound data that your systems are now capturing? Don’t get me wrong, all the aforementioned items are important to build your business, but it’s your people that will ultimately drive the performance of these resources.

The focus should then be on bringing in top quality talent into your company. It’s a question that has been asked hundreds of times within presumably every company and not much has changed to figure out the answer. The process has always been cut and dry; an open position comes around, the job ad is posted, you interview a group of candidates and pick who you feel is the best fit. So, how do you differentiate yourself from every other company in your market? HINT: It’s not just an extensive benefits package, although this may be necessary to stay at the top of candidate’s list in those highly competitive fields.

The answers lie within how you treat your employees once they have started and during the entire duration of their employment. The mentality of candidates has changed over the years. It was once common to land a job with the intention of working there until retirement. Now, there are swift changes in jobs for several reasons and candidates will be quick to jump to the next opportunity (most of the time, justifiably so). The general response that companies have to this phenomenon has been to retain their employees, which is where the mistake is made. Simply trying to retain your employees will have the exact opposite effect. Rather than retention, you should be focused on developing them without focusing on just the short-term returns.

The difference between retention and development comes from the intentions of you and your leadership’s actions. At the end of the day, an employee is still hired to fill a specific role, but this does not mean this is all the working relationship has to offer. Here is how to determine if you’ve developed a culture revolved around retaining or developing employees.

Retention

• Transactional Relationships – Leadership only checks in with their employees when deadlines are approaching, to assign more work, or the to have the infamous “what do you have cooking?” conversation.
• Lack of Engagement – Employees display a “clock-in clock-out” mentality. They aren’t excited to participate in group-oriented projects, seek out advice or provide additional insights during engagements. NOTE – this is different than an employee dedicating their entire life to the company (which is unhealthy, but a topic for another time).
• High Turnover After One to Two Years – From the employee’s perspective, if there is not opportunity for advancement, they are going to look for it elsewhere. After a year, an employee can justify the time of employee on their resume to future employers, so this is a pivotal “up or out” moment in their minds.
• Lack of Resources – There are no outlets for employees to develop additional skill sets. Whether those resources are learning materials, opportunities for certifications/higher education, or a mentorship program, there are no expectations for an employee to continue to improve upon their skills.

Development

• Structured Career Advancement – Without a long-term plan for employees to grow, you have created a roadblock within their career. Employees will be forced to look elsewhere for their next step for advancement, whether it be in title or compensation. Create road maps to articulate how employees may be able to advance within the company.
• Mentorship – Knowledge is the most powerful tool that we can equip our teams with. An effective way to develop employees is to create a mentorship program within the organization. Pair up and coming employees with experienced team members that have experience in that role to provide guidance, insights and a point of contact for any questions.
• Open Feedback Sessions – All too often, we set up a 1:1 meeting with our team members and the manager takes all the time to talk. These sessions are a great way to create a collaborative dialogue to identify areas of opportunity, spark innovation and to receive feedback from your employees. By creating a space where an employee feels comfortable sharing their ideas on how to improve the company, you will be fostering a growth-minded culture that sparks creativity and buy-in within the team.
• High Performance – In an organization that is focused on developing their employees, you will find that the team is self-motivated and feeling fulfilled within their role. These characteristics ultimately lead to higher performance within the team. As employees demonstrate their ability to do their job well, it is easier to then create opportunities to invest time in their development of other skills sets.

The ability of developing your team versus just simply retaining your team comes down to one simple thing – intentions. It is easy to just hire someone, let them do their job and check in periodically to ensure the job is being done correctly. This will lead to a revolving door of employees which will cause a long-term strain on your processes and even your finances. It is more cost effective to develop employees instead of continually recruiting, hiring and training new ones. With a little extra planning, focus and effort, a culture of development, self-improvement and high performance is achievable.

I know what you’re thinking, “Well, what happens if I do all of this work, and I STILL have turnover?” The goal is not to have a 0% turnover, but to get your employees developed to a point where they do not need you anymore, but also do not want to leave. Employees leave companies, it is a natural progression, but the long-lasting impact you make on an employee is invaluable. Working relationships do not have to be permanent to be deemed successful. In the long run, investing in your employees will always create a greater return for the company.

Need help structuring your development programs? We are here to help. Book a call with our experts to find out how we can help: https://origamicsolutions.com/schedule-a-meeting