What Is Employee Retention And How Can L&D Help?
Written by: Phillip Carmichael
Table of Contents
The Great Resignation has seen millions and millions of workers in the United States quit their jobs in search of greener pastures. Organizations are now faced with the challenge of attracting, hiring, and retaining employees in an extremely competitive labor market. However, by providing opportunities for learning and development (which is exactly what workers are looking for), businesses can increase employee retention, while also improving job satisfaction and engagement for their team members.
The Great Resignation: An Ongoing Problem
There are few people in today’s business ecosystem, who are not aware of The Great Resignation. The term, coined in May 2021 by Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor of business administration at Texas A&M University, refers to the recent and ongoing trend of U.S. workers quitting their jobs at an unprecedented rate.
Over the course of 2021, over 47 million Americans quit their jobs, according to additional U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and May 2022 was the twelfth consecutive month in which over 4 million people in the United States quit their jobs. According to PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey, one in five workers around the world plan to quit in 2022. And this increase in turnover is a costly problem for businesses: the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from half to two times that employee's salary.
In addition to the myriad of challenges they already face, organizations must now put extra focus on increasing employee retention in order to succeed and thrive in the future.
What Is Employee Retention?
Employee retention is a company's ability to keep quality talent or employees. Retention rate is the percentage of employees who stay at an organization over a time period.
Why Is Retention Important?
Retaining quality employees helps with the organization's efficiency and productivity. Existing employees know the vision, culture, and systems needed to meet necessary outputs. A new employee must learn the overarching goals during training and on the job.
The recruitment process can be expensive and time-consuming. It takes plenty of resources to find talent and screen, interview, and train them. Retaining employees helps you save time, recruitment costs, and resources.
Employees leaving your organization impacts morale and negatively affects engagement. Cultivating an environment where talent stays keeps employees motivated and committed to achieving business goals.
Your business values and operations are second nature to experienced employees. These individuals have the knowledge and skills to provide meaningful customer experiences and service.
Keys to Employee Retention
Employee retention programs will help combat low retention. These initiatives drive your employee engagement strategy and establish a foundation for team members to have positive work experiences. Key drivers of employee retention include:
Boosted morale: How your organization makes employees feel impacts how long they will stay. Layoffs, a negative public image, and resignations can create low morale.
Engagement: Employees want to feel connected and be involved in workplace decisions and implementations. Keeping employees engaged and ensuring they feel appreciated are critical to retention.
Stimulation: Team members want a sense of purpose and seek to have their skills used and recognized. Bored or underutilized employees may seek other employment.
Growth and development: Growth is not solely about moving individual contributors to management positions. It includes upskilling your employees to help them grow within their roles and become specialists. Individuals seek career advancement and growth opportunities.
Salaries and benefits: Fair compensation and benefits are crucial to retaining quality staff.
Employee wellbeing: Burnout causes a drop in productivity and motivation. Wellness programs and resources will help employees and promote loyalty.
Employee Retention Strategies
Various strategies can improve employee retention rates. Having a well-structured and engaging onboarding program and providing in-depth employee training opportunities are two viable and effective strategies.
Onboarding Training Videos
How an organization retains employees starts with onboarding. Onboarding sets the tone for new talent and gives them the opportunity to succeed.
Using engaging training videos and eLearning content helps empower new hires and saves existing employees time. New hires can always refer back to videos if they have any questions.
In-Depth eLearning Courses
Valuable training and development opportunities help keep quality employees.
Career-driven training videos and eLearning content incentivize employees to stay and grow within your organization. Employees will feel your organization values them enough to invest resources in them. In turn, productivity increases, and morale is boosted.
How Learning Development Can Help Retention Rates
eLearning training videos are a convenient, efficient, and cost-effective way of providing employees with the learning and development opportunities they crave, thereby increasing employee satisfaction and retention, while reducing turnover. This advantageous approach gives employees access to the knowledge of leading subject matter experts, flexibility to learn at their own pace, and the ability to ensure they have sufficiently learned the information through tailored assessments and quizzes.
Instructionally designed e-learning videos are brief, straightforward, and engaging, making them an excellent method of helping employees train, reskill, and upskill. These videos can be accessed at any time, from anywhere, and can focus on any topic or skillset that employees need to grow and achieve.
Whether it is an introductory course that explains the basics of Adobe Photoshop or an advanced course that explores the more complex features of Microsoft Excel, e-learning video content provides significant value to both employees who want to develop their skills and employers who want to retain talent.
However, not every organization (or employee) will require the same skillset and know-how. Custom e-learning training videos can be created through a personalized approach that centers on an organization’s specific vision and goals. Customized training and e-learning videos can be developed and implemented to guarantee that employees are getting the exact information and training they need based on their specific role, interests, and career path.
By providing their teams with e-learning videos for professional skills development, organizations can truly showcase their commitment to employees and retain their greatest asset: their people.
Learning and Development: What Employees Want
Statistics show that workers today want employers to help them learn and grow. Workers want to strengthen their existing skills and learn new skills, and they have a tremendous desire to develop both personally and professionally. They are also willing to leave their job in order to do so:
57% of U.S. workers want to update their skills, and 48% would consider switching jobs to do it.
71% of workers say job training and development increase their job satisfaction.
61% say upskilling opportunities are an important reason to stay at their job.
91% of employees want more training opportunities from their employers.
94% of workers would stay at their company if their company invested in their careers.
Younger workers especially want employers to offer them opportunities for learning and development.
However, despite this desire to learn, only 28% of workers are participating in training programs today. If organizations wish to retain the talent they spent so much time, energy, and money to find and hire, they need to offer their employees learning and development opportunities so that they can grow and excel in their roles.
Partner With Us for eLearning and Training Videos for Employees
Intellezy partners with organizations and creates award-winning eLearning content. Amid the turbulence and change in the workforce, employees still seek opportunities to learn and develop.
Our innovative employee development programs will help you invest in your employees, keeping them as loyal, engaged, and valuable team contributors.
Contact us to learn more about our eLearning content for employees.