A Professional Tip Brought to You By: Lauren Costley, Senior Divisional Director – Corporate Services & Training and Development

 In a candidate-driven and competitive market, the critical need to retain talent is still at the forefront for companies.  Leaders are losing Team Members to others in their industry or simply just losing them with no explanation, and they’re left wondering WHY? The assumptions made are usually not the reasons why they actually parted from the company.  As Leaders, we assume that it must be about the compensation or maybe it’s because they of the lack of flexibility. While those are important factors employees consider in today’s market, they’re not at the top of the list of why they truly leave. When in fact, most passive job seekers are seeking an organization that truly cares about their career aspirations and supported continued growth. As a Leader, it’s important you’re supporting the team in their individual personal growth, or they’ll start seeking their new work-home. 

At Deacon Recruiting, we’re passionate about continued learning.  We’re committed to both the investment of time and financial support to ensure our team members have an opportunity to develop professionally and personally.  We’ve implemented the following to promote and foster a positive learning environment to retain the very best talent:

1. Defined Career Paths

Companies of all sizes need a career path for each department.  Be mindful of what’s important to team members with different skillsets.  A career path needs to be written and clearly defined, and it must be realistic to achieve.   It’s a great idea to share a written career path at the offer stage and review in detail during onboarding.

2. Promote Training & Development

At Deacon, we share an overview of our programs during the very first interaction with candidates.  In the interview process, our team shares their personal stories of success, and correlates how Deacon’s programs support their development.  This is highly impactful coming from both new and well-tenured teammates.  Deacon offers a wide-range of training from monthly peer-led educational trainings to technical tips tailored around our tools.

3. Enrich through 1:1 Professional Development & Mentorship

Understand each individual’s specific goals & motivators.  Important to have 1:1 meetings weekly to touch base with team members to not only discuss work performance, but also asking questions centered around their goals for growth  It’s important to empower them, but to hold them accountable to the goals they’ve set to achieve.  Mentorship is also proven to ensure team members feel supported.  We offer new hire and annual mentorship at Deacon.

4. Customize Programs

A lot is done on the front-end of an employee’s start with a company, but it’s also important to take care of well-tenured team members who need an advanced training program.  Keep the interest of these loyal team members by customizing a program that brings them value too.  Consider bringing in external speakers for a new perspective.  Investment by the company in continued education goes a long way for high performing talent.

5. Ask for Feedback

You can spend a lot of time creating a Training & Development Program that leadership feels is the perfect value-add, but if it’s not well received – it’s a waste of time and even leads to more frustration.  Makes sure to survey your teammates for feedback for each program offered.

Remember your most talented team members can feel neglected without an Enhanced Training & Development program.  Try to implement or improve in one area, and in turn you will start see better retention and growth overall!