Recent research has shown that a lack of career growth is one of the top reasons that employees are leaving their jobs. Over 60% of the Millennial and Generation Z workforce say that are very likely to change their jobs in the next year.
The current competitive employer landscape has highlighted the need for employee development to be a top a priority, ensuring teams grow their skill sets to stay relevant, follow the latest industry trends and deliver on best practice.
With UK job vacancies now at a record high of 1.1 million, potential candidates are highly valuing development opportunities available to them when considering a job offer. It now plays a key role as a benefit that attracts the top talent that employers need if they want to keep growing their businesses.
So, it is critical to ensure that employee development is a continuous process, nurturing employees’ progression. Employers should provide a variety of learning opportunities, whilst encouraging employees to be responsible for their own development. However, too often employers underestimate the value of employee development. How else will employees be enabled to improve their strengths and develop their skills to better equip them in their jobs?
Ask yourself, does your company have a learning culture? If it does, then it will most likely have higher employee engagement and less employees leaving. Many studies have also shown that offering development opportunities boosts employee engagement.
Astonishingly, three quarters of employees feel that they are not reaching their full potential due to a lack of development opportunities in their current role. This leads to them feeling undervalued, which will result in a disengaged workforce and higher turnover.
Employee benefits and perks are great, but employee development is a longer-term investment. Employees recognise this and are likely to stay with you longer if they see this value too.
After all, don’t we all want to work for an employer that values its employees?