Employee turnover remains one of the hidden -- but increasingly significant -- costs of running a successful business. A company will spend as much as double a position's annual compensation to hire and train a new employee, according to the American Management Association. But with 91 percent of millenials expecting to stay in a job for less than three years, it begs the question why companies bother to invest in training and career development in the first place.
The answer, of course, is that employers that don't support learning in the workplace become obsolete faster than a 14.4 baud dial-up modem. Rackspace, an IT hosting company based in Texas, understands this and has pledged to solve its skills gap through formal training. But this is not the only option.
Developing and retaining employees also requires an informal approach. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, millennials believe that access to technology and resources make them more effective at work. They also expect continuous feedback on their performance, and they want to feel like they are advancing rapidly. Here are three ways companies can help employees learn and grow in the new world of work.
Mobile Performance Support
Mobile performance support is about helping employees solve problems using the devices they carry around with them all of the time. An employee faced with a challenge isn't looking for more training. She wants ideas anytime, anywhere -- whether she emails or calls someone, searches Google or asks an open question on LinkedIn or Twitter. Companies should shift investments from formal training programs to ensuring employees have access to the support services available on mobile devices, whether they be PDFs, video, text messaging, mobile webpages or native applications.
Continuous Feedback
Performance feedback is underused and underrated, in large part because most managers are uncomfortable critiquing an employee's work. The good news is, millennials welcome and expect regular feedback. They want to know how they are doing today -- not a year from now. Companies should invest in feedback processes that make it easy for people to request feedback and for managers to provide it in such a way that there's an ongoing conversation that gets recorded and is easily accessible.
Rotational Assignments
Millennials also want to advance quickly in their organizations, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Millennials at Work. Rotational assignments are a flexible way to give employees a sense that they are moving towards something and gaining a variety of experiences. The organization benefits because learning is occurring not in a formal training class removed from work, but in the context of actual work.
Don't dismiss formal training altogether. Formal courses are an important part of developing employee skills, especially during on-boarding. But formal training cannot keep up with the demand to learn new skills constantly and quickly. Companies must embrace an informal development model in which employees have 24/7 access to the resources they need, get regular feedback, and rotate through jobs to gain new experiences.
Risorse correlate
Vuoi continuare a imparare? Scopri i nostri prodotti, le storie dei clienti e gli ultimi approfondimenti del settore.
Scheda tecnica
Cornerstone Performance
Sia che tu esegua valutazioni delle performance solo una volta all'anno sia che tu adotti un processo di gestione delle prestazioni solido e continuativo, con Cornerstone Performance puoi stabilire obiettivi, formare i dipendenti, ricevere feedback, orientare lo sviluppo e attribuire riconoscimenti. Collega fluidamente le performance e i dati sulle competenze alle opportunità di apprendimento interne per favorire una crescita autonoma dei collaboratori con il supporto dei manager. In fondo, la crescita e i traguardi che il tuo personale può raggiungere grazie a Cornerstone Performance sono il migliore investimento che tu possa fare per lo sviluppo e i risultati della tua azienda.
Storie dei clienti
Carriere incentrate sulle competenze con l’intelligenza artificiale
Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) è la principale azienda di logistica al mondo. DPDHL è un gruppo di divisioni aziendali strettamente intrecciate che operano in sinergia per soddisfare le esigenze dei clienti.
Storie dei clienti
L'impegno di RPS per semplificare le complessità
RPS è un'azienda internazionale di servizi professionali specializzata in contesti naturali e urbani con sedi sparse in 125 paesi.Nell'organizzazione lavorano professionisti di tutti i settori: consulenti e studiosi, scienziati, architetti e ingegneri e molte altre figure. Fino al 2018, il reparto HR era decentralizzato, non prevedeva alcuna agenda globale né un responsabile del personale generale e si appoggiava su svariati sistemi e processi manuali.