Carmelina Piedra | Founder, Certified Career Coach, and Executive Innovation Coach & Facilitator at CareerCoachingPro.
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According to Gallup, the cost of replacing an employee can range from one-half to twice their annual salary on average. In addition, there is a loss of productivity and institutional knowledge as well as an impact on employee morale and company culture when an employee leaves an organization. Research from Pew Research Center found that employees leave organizations for several reasons including low pay, a lack of opportunities to advance and poor management, among other reasons.
While most people believe lack of pay or poor management are the biggest reasons why people leave organizations, it's often no opportunities to advance that leads to a lack of career development. According to a McKinsey survey, 41% of respondents cited a lack of career development and advancement as the top reason for leaving their jobs.
So how can organizations minimize the risk of attrition and keep company cultures enacted?
Ask Your Employees For Feedback
Human resource departments should be helping managers build better career paths so they can more effectively coach employees through their development and understand what role is right for them.
Organizations should also understand first-hand if their career development needs are being satisfied. Companies should be asking their employees for feedback on this topic and be able to react to their needs. Each company is unique, and so are the needs of their employees.
Most organizations provide feedback to employees via performance evaluations. However, they may not elicit feedback from their employees, which is a huge missed opportunity for so many. User-centered approaches can help. Ask employees for feedback on a regular basis, then pivot and make changes. Facilitating these discussions can give you an inside view of what’s really happening in your organization. To start:
• Conduct stay interviews. Ask your employees one-on-one what you can do to improve while they are still employed.
• Send out a survey. Collect quantitative data and poll the entire organization for feedback.
• Perform an anonymous Rose, Bud and Thorn exercise. Collect positives, negatives and opportunities for growth.
What happens if your organization hasn’t yet bought into this idea of collecting employee feedback? Then, you must advocate for your employees.
Empower Employees By Helping Them Identify Their Passions
Life is about change—constant change—and pivoting along the way in the right direction with flexibility is the key to success. Most people want satisfying and meaningful work based on one’s life purpose; this is critical since we typically spend more attention and energy on work than anything else we do. This is why career development at work is so important to one’s happiness.
Career development means advocating for change in work and continuing to grow. As a manager, you need to speak up for your employees and their career growth—and help them become drivers of change.
When advocating for your employees, it is important to stay on top of discussions by scheduling meetings with your employees, following up accordingly and offering advice. You can help set your employees up for success by using the five P's: positivity, proactiveness, preparedness, promotion and passion. Passion (or purpose) is one of the most important aspects of career growth. Employees want to make sure they are in the right job, otherwise, they may not find happiness in their career regardless of growth.
Ask your employees:
• What are you most passionate about in and outside of work?
• What makes you happy in general?
• When are you in the flow at work?
• Where is your energy drained versus energized in your work?
Encourage employees to keep a journal of the pros and cons of each job they've had in the past to better understand what makes them happiest. Purposeful work should be fun and leverage strengths so employees are engaged and energized by that work versus feeling drained.
Next, employees should think about the next step in their journey or pathway. Many times, there are multiple paths forward. Once employees have chosen their path, help them understand the steps needed to attain that next step in their career with training opportunities. Help them hold themselves accountable and stay on target in order to get to that next level.
If leadership doesn't support career development discussions, you run the risk of employees looking for a new role where career development is prioritized.
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