Are you a manager or senior leader struggling to combat the rising wave of resignations in your company, and seeking proven strategies to improve tech talent retention?
Today, I’d like to bring your attention to the pivotal intersection between employers battling to retain tech talent and employees seeking challenging, engaging careers with progressive salary advancement. Call it Training. Call it Upskilling. Call it Growth and Development or Learning and Development. Whatever you name it – developing your tech employee’s skills and talents belongs at the forefront of your talent retention and growth strategy.
In tech, the urgency (read opportunity) to improve tech talent retention rates through training and development has wide scale impact. The article Why the great resignation is hitting the tech industry hard reminds company leadership that “employees need to know their career path within an organization, and this goes hand-in-hand with upskilling training.” And the data shows this matters now more than ever, because “65% of tech workers crave more formal training, and nearly half are eager for focused programs to help develop such soft skills as communication, leadership and time management.”
Employers must focus on how to leverage training and upskilling to improve employee satisfaction, and in turn, increase your talent retention rates.
What’s at stake with tech talent retention?
When companies do not identify development opportunities and movement potential for current team members, they risk losing one of their most important tools for building employee loyalty and talent retention.
The stakes have never been higher. Millions of people are leaving jobs every month – roles that they are needed for – for other opportunities. That mass movement equals disruption for the companies they leave – Fast Company reports that “voluntary turnover has the potential to cost businesses billions, and that’s just the beginning of its effect.”
Many leaders are already opening up the conversations about developing current talent with their management teams – encouraging them to build relationships with training partners, in both tactical skills development and management and leadership preparation. These leaders have placed Learning and Development at the forefront of their talent retention strategy – because they recognize that employees are the backbone of an organization. The Learning and Development leaders are on the frontline for retention – Forbes summed it up neatly:”Learning and development leaders play a key role in retaining, attracting top talent, and inspiring and facilitating change.”
We know that employees are interested in training and are searching for where their company is making a commitment to them or investing in their growth. Often, these same employees are not sure how to ask their boss for training when teams are already incredibly short staffed. Leaders who are able to adapt to the mindset that training and development is an avenue to address tech talent retention will be the winners in the year ahead.
