Retention & Tech Talent: How to Ensure Your Employees Stick Around
Change is the new constant and companies have been forced to adapt quickly to the ever-digitizing world. With traditional
avenues for hiring tech talent becoming increasingly inefficient, companies are quickly realizing the need for alternative solutions to building their talent pipelines.
Harvard Business Journal reports that nearly 57 million Americans quit their jobs between January 2021 and February 2022. As these numbers continue to climb, businesses are faced with questions in need of answers around retention.
Companies have discovered that there’s more to improving employee retention than just company gifts and cookouts. Even bonuses and compensation don’t carry the weight most might think. According to a Deloitte report, 54 percent of employees ranked opportunities for job advancement as a more important retention incentive than compensation and bonuses. This desire to support employees and minimize turnover has led to a new movement in the talent space – reskilling and upskilling.
Keep reading to explore three ways you can retain employees through reskilling and upskilling. Whether your organization is focused on creating paths for career advancement, future-proofing roles for your current employees or investing in initiatives that accelerate workforce initiatives like cost savings and diversity, reskilling can be a solution to increasing employee retention throughout your organization.
Allow your employees to grow with you.
Organizations have changed tremendously since the pandemic and everyone is searching for ways to retain employees amidst the rise of automation and Great Resignation. A study by PWC shows that as much as 52 percent of jobs in certain industries are at risk of being displaced to automation.
With this new automation comes a demand for new skills, and filling such roles through traditional hiring methods can be costly. According to SHRM, the average 42 days needed to fill a position costs over $4,000 per hire. When you’re working with software engineers, that number drastically increases and can reach up to $60,000 in instances where you work with contractors or experience productivity loss.
Comparatively, reskilling on average costs $24,800 per individual according to the World Economic Forum.
Aside from cost savings, employees want to learn new skills and they feel it’s their responsibility to do so. Around 77 percent of workers are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain, which offers further opportunities when considering reskilling and upskilling as solutions.
IBM’s approach to reskilling is a clear example of the impact reskilling can have on retention. After initiating their reskilling program, IBM found that employees given access to training were 42 percent more likely to stay with a company long-term.
Don’t let digitization be a blocker for your team.
The digitization of the workforce is happening and automation is disrupting industries. According to Fortunly, automation is predicted to displace 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030. Reskilling can alleviate those losses by providing those displaced workers an alternative solution.
In a report by IBM, they stated the half-life of a learned skill is estimated to be five years and is even shorter for technical skills, meaning a skill learned today will be about half as valuable in just five years or less. Companies with reskilling partners find themselves better equipped to introduce new technologies and automation.
By creating new avenues for growth and development within your organization through reskilling, your teams will be enabled to better navigate and adapt to the digitizing market.
Invest in initiatives that align with your workforce values.
The growing presence of millennials and Gen Z professionals in the workplace is forcing companies to define and expand upon their values.
In a survey conducted by Deloitte, two in five millennials and Gen Z professionals stated they rejected a job or assignment because it did not mesh with their values. Meanwhile, those who said they were satisfied with their employers’ efforts to create a diverse and inclusive culture, were more likely to stay with their employer for longer than five years.
Considering 75 percent of the workforce will be millennials by 2030 and over 51 million will be Gen Z-ers, this values-based mindset will have a massive impact on company diversity initiatives moving forward.
Employers need to have a strong focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to attract and retain talent from both generations. They are more conscious of systemic racism, hold non-traditional views of gender identity, and are hyper-aware of issues of intersectionality, says Great Place To Work.
One way for companies to align their values with the workforce of tomorrow is to use reskilling as a diversity driver. By reskilling employees, companies are making technical education more accessible, avoiding the displacement of workers and making a proven impact on diversity.
Start your organization’s reskilling journey to retain your talent.
The digitization of the workforce and changing industry don’t need to negatively impact your company. With a proper reskilling partner, organizations can retain their loyal workforce and offer avenues of continued growth and development.
Explore our reskilling solutions and talk with our reskilling team today.
