Looking to Engage Talent? Learn How to Manage the Continuing Education of Your Employees
By Kristin Hodgkinson, Lois Hines, and Wendy R. Weidenbaum
In any business the question of engaging top talent is always top of mind. One may think the best way to ensure you retain your employees is through perks such as time off, flexible hours, or a solid benefits plan. While it’s true those are all desired, the key to truly engaging your employees may lie in education.
According to Harvard Business Review, one of the highest cited reasons for quitting a job was lack of growth opportunities. In fact, 87% of millennials feel development is important in a job. Now, you may be thinking that creating continuing education opportunities within a company is in HR’s wheelhouse. However, there are a number of ways managers can foster continuing education for their employees. Read on to learn more.
Make It Part of the Day-to-Day
Often times, employees don’t make professional development a priority because they find themselves mired in the weeds, under the stress of the day-to-day workload. However, honing their skills is actually in the best interest of both the employee and the company. By focusing on education, not only will companies grow because of the caliber of their current employees, they’ll also attract dynamic employees who value development.
In light of this, emphasizing the importance of continuing education to employees, and when possible, allowing them to structure their schedules to allow time for it will result in more engagement.
Foster a Culture of Sharing
As a manager, another seamless way to integrate professional development into your employees’ day-to-day is to pull from your existing resources. When you take a look at your team, identify the various strengths or skills they each possess – and then utilize them. Encourage your employees to be transparent with one another about best practices and tips and tricks. Is one of your employees a whiz at creating presentations? Or maybe you have a master of Adobe Creative Suite. Whatever the skill set may be, allow them to hold a workshop or a training to share their insights with the other team members. By doing this you’ll empower your employees by allowing them to teach others while strengthening your team as a whole.
Make Learning Seamless
While you want to emphasize the importance of continuing education to your employees, you also want to avoid it becoming something they view as an interruption to their productivity. As a solution to this, try providing them with tutorial videos, webinars, or reading material that they can use at their own discretion. By providing the materials in this form, you give them the autonomy to dictate what they need to learn based on the requirements of their job and the freedom to learn it on their own time.
Soft Skills
For those first starting out, so much of their development will focus on their technical skills. Be different. Strike a balance between the technical skills they need to advance as well as the softer skills such as influencing others and giving feedback. By balancing both the hard and soft skills, you are setting your team up for faster promotions, visibility, and learning.
When it comes to engaging talent, an emphasis on development is key. As a manager, ensure you are fostering an education friendly environment so that you not only develop strong employees, you also avoid losing them.