What Can Skill Development Strategies Do For Your Organization?
In the workplaces of the future, three of the top priorities will be skill development, employee retention, and employee well-being [1]. These priorities interconnect. Employees whose organizations offer robust skill development strategies are more likely to be retained and to experience well-being. Workers are loyal to employers who make skill development a structured part of their talent management programs.
Skill development is an essential component of employee engagement, meaning the level at which employees feel involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. Based on over 50 years of employee engagement research, Gallup [2] is a leader in proving that engaged employees produce better business outcomes than unengaged employees. These outcomes are:
- Increased sales and profit
- Greater employee loyalty
- Better product quality
- Decreased employee absenteeism
- Fewer safety violations
- Lower turnover
These results are the same across industries, company size, nationality, and state of the economy. However, Gallup concludes only 15% of employees worldwide and 35% in the United States are engaged. Let’s explore four ways that effective skill development strategies can improve employee engagement and benefit the organization.
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Skill development Is Important For Employee Recruitment
Employees know skill development is an essential part of effective career development. The World Economic Forum [3] says the world is facing a “reskilling emergency,” with over 1 billion people needing to reskill by 2030. Skills in demand are technology and interpersonal skills, such as sales, human resources, care, and education.
Job seekers want employers who understand the global economy and offer opportunities to grow their skills. Staffing firm ManpowerGroup [4] released a report about the 2022 labor landscape: 81% of workers said they expect training programs from their employers to help keep skills up to date, and savvy job seekers will ask about the quality of an employer’s learning and development initiatives before accepting a job offer.
Skill Development Is Essential For Employee Retention
PwC’s survey [5] of 52,000 workers concluded, “If the ‘great resignation’ has taught employers anything, it’s to not take their workers for granted.” Smart companies will heed this warning because losing an employee is expensive. Workplace analyst Josh Bersin [6] examined research studies and concluded the total cost of losing an employee could range from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5-2x their annual salary.
Employees feel appreciated and valued when companies make learning a priority. HR consulting company Glint [7] reported that the opportunity to learn and grow is the #1 driver of a great work culture. Their data show that when employees feel cared about at work, they are three times more likely to say they are happy to work for their current company and also to recommend working for their company.
One of the top three reasons employees quit a job is the perceived lack of career advancement available [8]. Employees who feel that their skills are not being put to good use in their current job are ten times more likely to be looking for a new job than those who feel that their skills are being put to good use [1]. If organizations want a good return on investment from employee development, retaining them must be a top priority.
Skill development Promotes A Sense Of Purpose
In a post-COVID study by management consulting firm McKinsey [9], nearly two-thirds of US-based employees said COVID-19 caused them to reflect on their purpose in life. Almost half said that post-pandemic, they are reconsidering what type of work they want to do. Millennials were three times more likely than others to say that they were reevaluating work.
Every employee’s skill development plan should explicitly acknowledge that employees want their work to have meaning and feel purposeful. Career counselors say, “Individuals are different, and those differences matter.” Work that doesn’t feel meaningful to one employee might feel like an ideal fit for another. The career development part of an employee’s individual learning plan should assess interests, strengths, work style preferences, and career values.
Structured learning needs to happen through all stages of the employee life cycle: attraction, recruitment, onboarding, retention, development, offboarding, and even exiting as a “happy leaver” [10] because “boomerang employees” (employees who left their company, but returned) are up to 4.3% of hires in 2021 [1]. Training should be ongoing, not “one and done.” A Citrix [11]study found that 82% of employees and 62% of HR directors believe workers will need to hone their current skills or acquire new ones at least once a year to maintain a competitive advantage in a global job market.
By facilitating skill development at all levels of the organization, today’s hires are tomorrow’s leaders. Training plans should include specific steps for succession planning to ensure the company has the talent in place both today and in the future.
Skill Development Encourages Innovation
The only constant in modern workplaces is change. Employees who know how to learn will be the ones who thrive and who will have the confidence and critical thinking skills to foster innovation. Blade Kotelly [12], a senior lecturer who teaches innovation at MIT, said innovation is a learned skill we can measure and teach.
An innovative learning culture welcomes questions about the status quo, encourages experimentation even if mistakes happen, gives employees sufficient time to pursue individual learning objectives, and offers opportunities for collaboration and brainstorming. Because this type of work culture is engaging and fun, employees enjoy working there. Market research firm Rockbridge Associates [13] found job satisfaction is 87% among companies perceived as highly innovative, 53% in those perceived as moderately innovative, and 31% in those perceived as low in innovation.
Key Takeaways
We’ve reviewed four ways that skill development strategies attract and retain top talent: by promoting a company’s commitment to learning to improve recruitment, offering high-quality learning programs to increase employee loyalty, using skill development to promote a sense of employee purpose, and creating a learning culture that encourages innovation.
Download the eBook Skill-Building Success: Using Intelligent Tech Tools For Employee Skill Development to learn how you can use modern technology to fuel employee growth.
References
[1] The Transformation of L&D
[2] What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It?
[3] We need a global reskilling revolution – here’s why
[4] The Great Realization Report: Accelerating Trends, Renewed Urgency
[5] What 52,000 people think about work today
[6] Employee Retention Now a Big Issue: Why the Tide has Turned
[7] Employee Well-Being Report
[8] Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected
[9] Help your employees find purpose—or watch them leave
[10] The Employee Life Cycle: 19 Tips to Get it Right
[11] Citrix® Uncovers What Employees Really want in 2021
[12] Innovation Can Be Taught. And Measured
[13] How Much of a Role Does Company Innovativeness Play on Employee Satisfaction and Loyalty?
