HR Professional Learning and Development
In order for your company to compete and outperform your rivals you need to attract the most talented people in your industry. By finding and retaining the most talented people your organisation will grow and it will also retain its structure and vision.
However, it is difficult for companies to hold on to staff. Research by the recruitment firm Ortus suggests that 60% of HR professional are seeing an increase in headhunting of their staff. Despite this fewer than half of companies surveyed said that they had any strategy in place to retain existing employees.
Looking at the landscape of employee behaviour you can see why HR professional is struggling with retention. Adecco have also done research in this area and they say that 52% of UK workers are planning to change from their job in the next 24 months. Keeping these employees cannot be left to salary increases alone so companies are simply going to have to work harder to give their talent other reasons to stay. One obvious way is to encourage retention through a structured learning and development program.
Employee engagement and retention
According to Ortus’ research, the biggest catalyst for employees leaving an organisation is career development (75 per cent), closely followed by salary (72 per cent). This means that, even if you do not have the budget for wage increases, you could still encourage staff to stay. By providing a clear training and development plan staff may be motivated to stay and grow with you.
Investing in HR professional learning and development programs for staff is an efficient way of achieving this. Learning outcomes for staff have the dual benefit of making workers more productive but also motivating those workers to stay in the company.
When you invest time and energy into the development of people you are showing them in a real way that they have a future with your company and that that future is bright. By building their strengths in line with a future vision of the role you give them a reason to stay.
The Role of Management
Employee engagement is one of the primary goals of any HR professional and HR learning and development can help to provide that. However, engagement also requires management to be engaging. Everyone knows the saying: ‘people don’t leave companies, they leave managers’ so it is essential to support leaders in creating a climate that enables and engages employees, and that this climate then filters down throughout the organisation.
It is the manager’s role to empower their team members and to make them feel valued. This is the root of employee engagement but it is not always that easy for management to foster this attitude.
Can those qualities be taught to managers? Of course they can. The best way to achieve this is through a dedicated learning intervention aimed at the leadership level, and one which focuses not just on what employee engagement is, but on the skills required to effect it.
Conclusion
HR training and development may not be the only way to affect employee turnover but it is a critical part of any company strategy. Learning and development is about two things:
- Making people better able to do their jobs
- Investing in people and letting them thrive
