Learning and development: why it matters for staff retention

Learning and development: why it matters for staff retention

In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious to employers that learning and development is a core foundation for the long-term retention of their staff. In this sense, it is easy to see why learning and development is a primary focus for HR managers and business leaders in 2019.

But why has learning and development emerged of such value to your employees, and how does it impact their long-term trajectory with the business? Here’s what you need to know.

Why the shift towards learning and development in the workplace?

In an increasingly demanding workforce, time pressures leave little margin for unproductivity. Due to the fast and unpredictable nature of the world of work, as an employer it is essential that you have an army of highly skilled employees that can be agile in the face of change.

On the flip side, employees want to keep their skills up to date and grow within a business. As such, employers need to prepare and equip their employees with the tools and knowledge to set their employees up for success. Businesses that fail to extend their budget to include a people investment are more likely to see employees move to a business that will. Why?

By investing in your people you are unequivocally communicating to them that they are worth it – that they are valuable and that you see them in the future of the business. This is especially crucial in the war for talent in a highly competitive market.

Why is building a culture of learning important for staff retention?

Learning and development doesn’t just benefit your employees. Investing in your employees makes good business sense. Still not convinced? Here are some hard-hitting facts on learning and development and what it means for your employees:

• The financial burden of replacing an employee can reach up to 9 months of their annual salary.
• According to a LinkedIn survey, opportunities for growth and development are the top reasons employees are willing to stay with a business. In fact, 56% of employees will remain with their current employer when they are offered “opportunities for challenge” or to “improve skills”.
• Employees that don’t believe that they can fulfil their career aspirations with their employer are 12 times more likely to contemplate resigning.

But, what if I train and develop my employees and they still leave?

A level of attrition is normal within any business. However, equipping your employees with the tools and knowledge to not only set them up for success in their current role, but to provide opportunities for career advancement and growth within the business, is a powerful retention tool that should not be underestimated.

This is especially apparent as studies show that 40% of employees will resign within the first year when they are not set up with the required training tools to succeed in their role.

Yes, there is always a risk that an employee will leave. But the risk that they will leave due to a lack of development is much greater. The truth is, all employees want to feel invaluable. They want to feel they belong at work and have a sense of purpose in what they do. Otherwise, what’s the point? This is, in essence, captured in the following quote of Richard Branson:

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to”

The fundamental risk is that you fail to understand the needs of your employees, and they leave as a result.

What you can do to facilitate employee learning and development

There are many ways you can support employees on their learning and development journey. Build a career development framework to ensure that you understand your employees’ goals and needs. So how can you do that? Here are some tips to get you started:

• Implement a Reward and Recognition program: With Redii, you can create customised awards to recognise your employees when they make a commitment to their own development. One of our clients created the ‘Shining Star’ Award which is given to someone who “continually challenges themselves and others to improve, sets ambitious goals and seeks feedback for improvement purposes”.
• Incentivise self-development: this is a surefire way to encourage employees to undertake training.
• Ask your employees what their long term aspirations with the business are: where do they see themselves in 12 months? What areas of the business are they interested in understanding more about?
• Support Continual Professional Development (CPD): some roles require ongoing, often annual, refresher courses to ensure skills and training are up-to-date with industry needs.
• Find out where your employees need to improve their skills: it could be a brush up on Excel or a leadership course to supplement a change in role.
• Conduct an internal survey: ask all staff how they feel that their current skills benchmark against their role requirements.

Benefits of investing in the development of your people

Staff retention, whilst arguably the most important benefit of creating a learning and development culture, is not the only benefit. Other advantages of investing in your people include:

• Development and retention of a highly skilled workforce
• Competitive advantage
• Reduced turnover
• Greater employee satisfaction and meaning in work
• Increased employee loyalty

Building a learning culture a power tool for staff retention. This is why it’s crucial to train and develop your people so as to harness your employees’ skills and ensure they feel valued.

Redii provides recognition and reward programs to recognise your employees for commitment to their development. Create a culture of learning in your company. Request a demo today!

Additional Sources:

https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/human-capital/articles/human-capital-trends.html
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/workforce-of-the-future/workforce-of-the-future-the-competing-forces-shaping-2030-pwc.pdf
https://www.inc.com/chad-halvorson/5-reasons-you-should-be-investing-in-employee-development.html
https://blog.cultureamp.com/focus-on-learning-development-to-increase-retention
https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/resources/pdfs/inside-the-mind-of-todays-candidate.pdf
https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/statistics-value-of-employee-training-and-development
https://www.officevibe.com/blog/continuous-learninghttps://www.docebo.com/blog/learning-development-important/

Why diversity and inclusion are your keys to staff retention

Why diversity and inclusion are your keys to staff retention

Australia is an incredibility diverse nation, with a wide variety of cultures, people and personalities. So it’s unsurprising that most modern workplaces are similarly diverse. The most successful business leaders are recognising the positive outcomes this diversity provides, and using it to retain their best employees.

When it comes to the workplace, diversity doesn’t just relate to where someone was born – it also describes their age, cultural background, gender, personality, ethnicity, educational levels, the way they work and learn, their socio-economic background, their beliefs and more. Here’s why diversity and inclusion are so important to building an exceptional company culture that your employees won’t want to leave.

Creating a company culture built on diversity

No matter what industry you’re in, you’ll likely find diverse staff across all generations and segments – and it makes sense. While race isn’t the only aspect of diversity, it does play an important role in workplace success – reports show that “racially diverse teams outperform non-diverse ones by 35%”. When it comes to gender diversity, teams where men and women are hired equally (rather than having a gender bias one way or the other) earn 41% more revenue.

So it’s clear that diversity makes for better workplaces, but what does it mean for the people? Sure, the CEOs get the benefits of a more productive workforce, but does it have any impact on retention? Research shows that it does. A Glassdoor report found that 67% of candidates want to join an inclusive and diverse employer. Moreover, having a diverse workforce can actually build staff camaraderie and reduce employee turnover.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the workplace

As a leader in the business, it’s important that you recognise the differences in your team, and communicate with your employees regularly to understand their different wants and needs. As you continue on your diversity and inclusion journey, you’ll realise that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that applies to every workplace. Instead, your business is unique because of its diversity.

Individuality is a fantastic trait in employees, and it’s something you should look to harness as a leader. When individuality is both celebrated and supported, employees often become more empowered and confident in their work. In turn, this increases productivity, promotes a more positive work environment and can even help your business become more attractive to jobseekers.

In all things, keep the lines of communication open and actively listen to your employees’ needs.

The role emotional intelligence plays

Emotional intelligence (EQ) has become something of a buzzword in recent years – and for good reason. Leaders who tap into their EQ recognise how important it is to be flexible in their approach to employees, and especially to be responsive to their needs. A few ways you can use your own EQ to build diversity and inclusion into your workplace include:

• Continuous feedback (one-on-one or group catch-ups).
• Surveys to find out what your employees want – from you as their leader and from the company as a whole.
• Team-building sessions.
• Brainstorming meetings that include everyone – not just upper management.

People with higher EQ tend to work better as leaders and they often possess: greater self-awareness; an understanding of how different types of communication can be employed; the ability to better regulate emotions; more motivation; a wider social network; and the ability to understand and be empathetic to others.

Being emotionally intelligent means investing in free-flowing communication, open dialogue with your team and ongoing feedback. This is how you can begin to turn your company culture dream into a reality. By placing diversity and inclusion as the pillars of your culture, you’ll find that staff are happier and more positive, and will naturally want to stay with the company.

Time to build your new company culture

Now that you understand how crucial diversity and inclusion are to retaining staff, how do you go about implementing that company culture? Here are some tactics to get you started:

• Share the decision-making process: The top-down management style has gone the way of the dodo in most modern businesses. Sharing the decision-making can have benefits like greater inclusion from siloed departments, team building, and new ideas you wouldn’t have considered on your own.
• Be flexible: That doesn’t necessarily mean letting everyone work from home whenever they want, but recognise that your diverse team will have different needs. Maybe a new parent could use some more time working from their home office, or perhaps a younger team member needs to take a day off to upskill themselves with a course.
• Recognise and respect different goals: Having a team of individuals means understanding that they will have different career goals. Those paths will be as diverse as your staff, so communicate with them about their aspirations and don’t treat a desire to find a work-life balance as a lack of ambition.
• Introduce a recognition system: Also consider whether a system that recognises and rewards employees could be used to promote greater inclusion, and therefore build a stronger team.

Get it right and reap the benefits

Diversity and inclusion are terrific tools to retain your best people, but that’s not the only positive. Diverse workplaces can reap countless benefits, including:

• Greater profits
• A reputation boost for your brand
• More engaged employees
• Lower overall staff turnover
• A wider skill set to draw upon
• Improved creativity
• A more productive team

It might seem like a small – but necessary – investment on the surface, but building diversity and inclusion programs into your company culture can deliver a myriad of benefits. Most importantly, it will provide a platform upon which your staff can celebrate their differences and become more inclusive with their co-workers. The result is a happier, more productive company where staff want to build their careers.

Redii provides recognition and reward programs to facilitate communication and promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Request a demo today!

Additional Sources:

https://profile.id.com.au/australia/ancestry
https://bigthink.com/amway/why-emotional-intelligence-is-a-key-pillar-of-diversity-and-inclusion
https://inside.6q.io/benefits-of-cultural-diversity-in-the-workplace/
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-workplace-4926.html
http://www.convergeinternational.com.au/docs/default-source/tipsheets/creating-positive-workplaces/celebrating-diversity-in-the-workplace-cvi1300.pdf?sfvrsn=2
https://www.hult.edu/blog/promoting-diversity-in-workplace/

Company culture: why it matters for staff retention

Company culture: why it matters for staff retention

Company culture arguably plays the most important role in determining an employee’s longevity with a business, as it can shape the entire employee experience. Businesses defined by a negative culture are more likely to see higher rates of costly employee turnover – which can spell disaster for the bottom-line.

A survey from Globoforce found that almost 50% of Human Resources leaders deem staff retention as their primary obstacle. It’s not surprising, then, that creating a positive company culture that employees won’t want to leave is a key focus for HR managers and business leaders in 2019.

But what does company culture really mean, and how does it impact your employees – and their willingness to stay with the business? Here’s what you need to know.

What really is company culture?

A company’s culture is reflected in its identity and purpose; its values and beliefs, policies and processes that govern an employee’s everyday working life. These are generally moulded by a business’s mission, vision and objectives.

From paid volunteering days to Friday morning breakfasts, monthly Town Hall meetings to regular manager one-on-ones, each company culture is unique and comprised of various elements that are deemed to be meaningful to the business and its employees.

Nowadays, prospective employees are empowered to pick and choose organisations more carefully based upon how a company’s culture parallels their own values, expectations and worldview. On the other hand, employers seek employees that will fit and have a cultural ‘add’ to their business.

Employee engagement surveys are a great way to gauge your company’s culture, as well as how your employees feel about the business. According to a report from Officevibe, a staggering 33% of individuals surveyed “don’t believe their company’s core values align with their personal values”. This is why it is so important to hire the right people from the get-go. Alignment between employees and the employer brand is key as it has the capacity to set your employees, and ultimately the business up for success – or failure.

Why is company culture important for staff retention?

Company culture and the employee experience go hand-in-hand. Where employees have a negative experience at work, the company culture can become toxic and spread like wildfire. However, when a company’s culture is positive, inspiring and supportive, employees are empowered and equipped to do their best work.

Whilst a level of attrition is normal to an extent, it is not difficult to see the relationship between company culture and turnover within a company. Employees that feel in tune with their company’s culture – that they fit, that they can add value and are valued, that their needs are met – tend to have a greater sense of overall happiness at work and are more positively engaged.

Creating an environment to which your employees feel connected, can harness a strong sense of belonging and is often reflected in greater employee engagement and staff retention rates. On the other hand, employees that feel undervalued, or that they are not recognised for their efforts, are more likely to resign. As such, building a culture of recognition is an essential facet of company culture. When your employees are acknowledged and reaffirmed that their contribution makes an impact, they are likely to be more motivated and feel that they belong at work.

Improving your company culture to retain talent

Company culture is always a work in progress – it evolves over time with the growth of a business. As such, it is important to be flexible and listen to your employees so that you are able to be responsive to their needs as things change.

Here are some strategies to improve your company’s culture:

• Champion brand purpose: ensuring that your employees understand the company’s values and purpose can create a sense of meaning in one’s work and be a great motivator for your employees.
• Ask for ongoing feedback: From employee engagement surveys to regular one-on-ones, it’s imperative that you seek feedback from employees, as well as create an open platform for them to do so, to ensure that they feel ‘heard’.
• Implement a Recognition and Reward program: Creating a culture of recognition and inclusion through a recognition and reward program is a great way boost employee happiness at work and promote a positive workplace.
• Be transparent: When employees don’t believe in the integrity of the business, there can be devastating impacts on company culture. Build trust with your employees through promoting transparency across all areas of the business and create a culture they can be proud of.
• Employee benefits: whilst employee benefits are not the be-all-and-end-all, they do in fact hold weight in that they can be a powerful retention tool. The perks of a company’s culture could be the competitive advantage your company has over another.

The benefits go beyond greater retention

Staff retention is not the only gleaming benefit of building a positive company culture. Companies with great cultures often have:

• Competitive advantage
• Increased profitability
• Greater employee engagement
• High employee morale and loyalty
• Cost savings from reduced turnover

Company culture is an essential ingredient for staff retention. This is why it’s crucial to develop an environment that is positive and can bring out the best in your employees – and you might just find that they won’t want to leave.

Redii provides recognition and rewards programs to facilitate a positive, recognition-rich company culture. Request a demo today!

Additional Sources:

https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/human-capital/articles/human-capital-trends.html
https://www.surveygizmo.com/resources/blog/measure-and-improve-company-culture/
https://www.bluleadz.com/blog/annual-digest-of-company-culture-statistics
https://blog.cultureamp.com/continuous-listening-strategy
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-company-culture-2062000
https://www.thebigredgroup.com.au/purpose-driven-work/