The majority of statistics, studies and surveys show that development opportunities are the main reason employees choose to stay with a company or not. However, the question to ask is perhaps not 'what can I do to retain talent?' but rather 'how can I make learning and career options more visible to convince them to stay?'. Let's look a little deeper by asking ourselves some important questions:
What do employees look for in an internal talent marketplace?
What does my talent marketplace look like?
How visible, accessible and effective is it?
According to the Cornerstone study "Ready, Set, Grow: The Building Blocks for High-Impact Talent Mobility", the primary reason employees would use the project and joint venture features of an opportunity marketplace is to make their existing skills stronger.
Demographically, there are some interesting breakdowns related to diversity and inclusion in the report:
Women are 33% more likely than men to say they would like to explore projects that help them grow new or different skills.
Employees under 45 are about 50% more likely than those over 45 to want to explore projects that develop new connections and mentors.
Employees in larger organisations (1,000+ employees) are starting to shift from projects that make existing skills stronger as their number one priority, to projects that let them explore other opportunities without risking their current job.
