84% of employees are planning on seeking new employment in 2012, with only 5% intending to remain in their current role, according to a survey conducted by Right Management across both Canada and the United States.

“The survey findings reflect a lot of employee dissatisfaction across North America,” said Bram Lowsky, executive vice-president at Right Management. “Employees are restless and feel they are lacking in options. The prolonged period of economic uncertainty has meant much less job mobility than usual and employees understandably believe they have fewer career opportunities, either internally or via a new position.”

Environmental employees may be more engaged than those working in other sectors, but it is still important to consider this survey’s findings and ensure you are offering employees enough to keep them engaged and committed to your organization.

“The [survey] findings serve as a barometer of worker distrust in management as well as job commitment” says Lowsky. “Addressing the distrust may certainly be difficult in a down economy, but senior management needs to show they’re up to the challenge of renewed growth and developing a sound strategy moving forward.”

“When the job market picks up many employees are sure to make their move, and employers should expect to lose some of their top contributors. Top management can’t [expect] these challenges to go away on their own.”

So how can you keep key employees from leaving? Management can begin by identifying a match between the organization’s future needs and the aspirations and strengths of current, top performing employees.

Provide them with options to develop new skills or take on new responsibilities and show employees that you are invested in them and are willing to invest in their continued learning and development.

Leveraging the talent that the organization already possesses by providing learning and growth opportunities and a projected path into the future, increases both engagement and an employee’s dedication to the organization.

In addition to employee retention, the right mix of employee training, professional development, and meaningful work, provides substantial payoffs for employers through increased employee productivity, knowledge, and engagement.

“These kinds of people always have career options. It’s your job to know who they are, to let them know you know who they are and to tune in to their individual motivators in order to hold onto them,” said Lowsky.
To assist environmental employers develop and engage their workforce through training and professional development, ECO Canada offers a few options:

The Harvard Stepping up To Management online training program is designed to assist your employees develop transferable people management skills. This program focuses on new managers, but can be of benefit to any employee that is or may eventually become a leader of as little as one employee or as many as a hundred. The comprehensive online training program consists of 8 targeted modules that are prioritized according to the employee’s needs and role requirements.

Program benefits include reduced training costs (no travel cost), the capability to monitor employee progress, the consistent application of training due to the online format and the flexibility to be completed at the convenience of employees.

Learn more.

The Canadian Centre for Environmental Education’s Certificate and Master in Environmental Practice have been developed through a partnership between ECO Canada and Royal Roads University, as an opportunity for your employees to obtain professional development relevant to the environmental industry and their fields of specialization.

Both the Certificate and Master Program are distance-based programs that are flexible and up-to-date with what is happening in the environmental industry. The programs were designed to allow as little work interruption as possible to ensure that work load as well as career momentum continue to be emphasized.

Learn more.