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| Career development over pay rises |
As the economy continues to improve, employees are becoming more confident about moving from one company to another. As a result, organizations will need to focus on retaining staff if they want to avoid a spike in employee turnover over the coming year. While employees can be enticed by attractive salaries offered by competitors, companies have to look at their total reward package if they are to retain top talent. Employees place a high value on non-tangible benefits, such as career progression opportunities and job satisfaction. These non-tangible benefits can encourage your top talent to remain with you rather than explore opportunities elsewhere.
The Importance of Career Development
While a satisfactory level of pay is certainly important to employees, opportunities for career development have a significant impact on whether employees remain with a company or seek to move on. One of the main reasons that employees seek to leave is to secure a promoted post in another organization. If you can reassure your top talent that they will have opportunities to grow and develop with you, they are more likely to stay with you.
Fresh Challenges
Top talent often seeks new challenges to stretch them and expand their skills and experience. If your high-performing employees suddenly find that they are coasting in their current roles, you may find that they start looking outside of your organization for new opportunities. You can ensure that your top talent remains engaged and interested in working with you if you speak with them regularly about their career aspirations. A well-managed employee performance appraisal system will enable you to listen to what your employees want from their work as well as providing the opportunity for constructive feedback.
Is Generation Y Different?
There are some commentators who suggest that the situation will change as Generation Y becomes established in the workforce. This generation will place more emphasis on work-life balance than career progression, it is argued. However, care should be taken when relying on such sweeping assumptions. By speaking to each individual employee as part of a structured appraisal, you will gain a better insight into the priorities and aspirations of your own workforce.
What Are Your Competitors Doing?
According to a report published in 2014 by Deloitte in partnership with the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (International Foundation), 50% of employers surveyed intended to place more emphasis on learning and development programs in recognition of the value employees place on workplace learning and career development opportunities. If you want to ensure that these companies do not become a temptation to your workforce, it is worth taking some time to examine your own learning and development activity. If you offer better opportunities than your competitors, you stand a better chance of retaining top performers.
In conclusion, while pay will always be a factor in whether employees consider moving to new jobs, you can increase your chances of retaining good employees by ensuring that you have clearly defined career development opportunities on offer. If you want to keep employee turnover to a minimum, take steps to ensure that you are effectively managing employee performance and providing regular development opportunities through a well-run employee appraisal system.
Primalogik 360 can help you streamline your employee performance reviews and perform frequent check-ins. Start your free trial today!
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