It’s every manager’s dream to attract and retain the best employees. After searching for, identifying, and onboarding employees and then managing their performance, how do you keep them?
Creating an employee learning environment is an important component of any employee retention strategy. Opportunities to learn add to the other elements of a retention environment, including a culture that gives employees a sense of purpose and a workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion. Companies that promise lifelong employee learning and development encourage people to leave work at the end of each day knowing more than they did at the start.
Employee Learning as a Path to Employee Retention
According to AMA’s Improving Your Managerial Effectiveness program, professional and personal development are important components of employee workplace satisfaction. This makes talent development an important ingredient in the well-being of a team and organization.
In addition, there is a strong link between creativity and development opportunities in the workplace. Creativity thrives in a dynamic and growing environment and is a catalyst for development.
Supporting an Employee Learning and Development Environment
As you look to build employee retention, here are a few ways to support employee development:
- Encourage employees’ exposure to other teams in the department, and encourage them to learn more about the organization and what it does.
- Plan to keep team members active in team meetings by asking them to prepare topics to present.
- Plan for small sub-teams of two or three people to prepare presentations periodically. This activity also enhances team cohesion.
- Engage people in interesting problem-solving activities to encourage creativity.
- Consider setting a professional and personal development plan with your team members.
- Provide professional training and courses when possible.
- Coach team members.
In addition, managers can take the following actions to create a strong environment for team performance:
- Make sure that creativity and development help to shape the team’s identity and character.
- Point out successes and improvements to increase the team’s collaboration and ability to deal with challenges.
- Provide clarity for each member’s next steps of development, both professionally and as a team member. When possible, create a step-by-step development plan with each team member that provides clarity.
Creating a learning and development environment will help boost employee retention by creating more engaged employees, better collaboration, increased morale, and better employee satisfaction.
Business leaders need a solid understanding of skills related to talent acquisition, assessment, development, retention, and measurement.