We are a long way from the days when people entered a job and stayed in it for a lifetime.
-For her 40 years of service we present her with this bouquet of flowers and these chocolates. A round of applause for our dear Angelica". I was sitting there, witnessing this event, celebrating 40 years of service in the same company, where they were thanking a colleague with flowers and chocolates, while I was just thinking "This is not for me. Ihave to get out of here.
We are a long way from the times when people entered a job and stayed in it for a lifetime. At least, the new generations (GenX, Millennials and GenZ) no longer want that for our lives, and it is not strange to see that, nowadays, people change jobs every 2-3 years in search of better opportunities.
But this 'turnover', while good for professionals seeking to improve their quality of life and career development, is not so good for companies that must devote resources to new onboardings, which ends up being more expensive than keeping their talent.
Mehan et al. (2019) found that. over 77% of employees leave their jobs due to lack of career development opportunities, work-life balance, compensation and benefits, job characteristics, and management behavior., work-life balance, compensation and benefits, job characteristics, and managerial behavior. More than 38% of these generally quit their jobs within the first year.
And this situation is even more alarming with younger people. It is estimated that around half of young employees (GenZ) will quit their jobs in the next 2 years. A 2019 Deloitte survey revealed that:
While money and benefits are the main influencing factors in retaining and attracting talent, professionals want constant challenges, continuous learning and career development programs.
A Gallup survey showed that career growth opportunities move 87% of millennials. This means that companies that provide opportunities for upskilling y reskilling opportunities have a better chance of attracting talent. But what does upskilling and reskilling really mean?
Upskilling is to teach professionals new skills and competencies to optimize their performance in their position, while reskilling seeks to train or develop skills to assume a new position or role within the company.
In my life I have met people that I have heard say: 'why spend on training or courses, if later, when you know, you are going to leave the company'. Well, it is clearly because of that same thinking and beliefs that the talent will leave the company, and in that case there is no strategy that can help them.
It is the task of each person in a management position to listen to his or her collaborators, understand what their skills are, what they want to develop and where they see themselves professionally in 5 years' time. Communication is essential to be able to define which strategy to use: upskilling to improve performance, or reskilling if the professional wishes to move within the company to another position.
In summary, to be able to define a good strategy to retain your team, you must first listen, maintain fluid communication and constantly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each person to help them improve their own processes(upskilling). The company culture also plays an important role, and allowing internal mobility(reskilling) to other teams or positions is fundamental for your employees to feel that they have 'a future' within the company..
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Sources:
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This article originally appeared on the Get On Board blog.
Edited by
Raquel Rojas
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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