Retention: Where the real war for talent begins

Your top talent may already be preparing to leave your organisation. Are you doing everything you can to promote retention and prevent this from happening?

68% (EMEA) of workers say they intend to look for a job with another organisation within the next year*

Over the past few years many employees have been concentrating solely on survival within the workplace. Coming out of the recession, the mist is starting to clear and employees are starting to feel more confident about their next step, whether that be inside or outside of their current organisation. With the UK recruitment market continually improving, the biggest risk employers are currently facing is an exodus of their business critical talent. If your employees can’t identify clear paths for development within your organisation they will simply go elsewhere. So how do you ensure that your key talent is focussed on development opportunities within and not outside of the organisation?

Implementing a coherent career development strategy across any sized organisation is not an easy task and is an evolutionary process that requires the input and engagement of employees, Managers and HR.

So where is your organisation on that journey? Here are some questions that might help you define whether you’re going in the right direction.

Do you know what your employees want?

• When your employees are thinking about career planning, do you know what support and guidance they are looking for?
• Do you have an environment which makes it simple for employees to acquire new skills and develop a better sense of their motivations and strengths?
• Do they understand what’s possible for them within the organisation, where the opportunities are and how to pursue them?
• Do you give employees the power to think about and plan their career path, with resources in place to support their plan and develop their skillset?

 Are your Managers equipped to encourage productive career development conversations?

According to a recent survey (*Kelly Global Services Workforce Index) 62% of employees say they haven’t had a career conversation in the last year.

• Are your managers’ equipped to conduct effective and meaningful career conversations?
•  How often do they happen - Is it an ongoing dialogue or a once a year chat as part of a performance review?
• Do your Managers have the resources available to them to facilitate career planning and development on an ongoing basis?

If you don’t know the answer to some of these questions, then it might be time to re- think your career development strategy and look at how you could  improve the way you approach career management within your organisation. It is one of the most cost-effective ways of ensuring employee engagement and retention, and now, more than ever, it is an indispensable part of your arsenal in the war for talent.

Renovo have developed a powerful, flexible online career management and learning system to help organisations empower and engage every employee to take charge of their own career development. It contains a wealth of resources including interactive career tools and assessments, comprehensive eLearning and access to expert advice. Offered at enterprise level, organisations are able to provide support to all employees and also to managers, to help better equip them for productive career conversations.

Renovo is one of the UK’s leading providers of outplacement and career transition support. We work with both organisations and individuals to support all their career transition requirements. If you would like to understand how Renovo can help you please call 0800 612 2011 or email info@renovo.co.uk