How To Drive Employee Retention Through Meaningful Career Support Programs

Learn how investment in three key professional development areas will go further than empty workplace perks in a tight labor market

From the Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting, organizations continue to face challenges to employee engagement and retention. The central question of the past three years has been: what tactics will truly engage workers and inspire them to stay with their current organizations?

The latest data from the University of Phoenix Career Institute points to the roots of this issue; according to its 2023 Career Optimism Index, 66% of American workers believe there is a job out there that is a better fit for them than their current role. Critically, 40% do not see a clear path forward for advancing their career at their current job. Consequently, 53% are actively looking for a new job or expect to in the next 6 months.
 

However, there is hope. 68% of these workers who are seeking new opportunities say they would consider staying at their current job if things could change. When nearly half of employers (46%) cite a lack of well-qualified applicants as the greatest challenge their organizations face when finding talent, there is a clear mutual benefit to investing internally, improving talent pipelines and fostering retention.

These investments must be significant to make a meaningful difference. Empty workplace perks like office happy hours and free lunches are no longer cutting it. Instead, the Career Optimism Index reveals that foundational career development support is the key, particularly across the following three investment areas.

Increasing Access to Mentorship

American workplaces are facing a mentorship epidemic. According to the Career Optimism Index, most workers (56%) say they do not have a mentor, and 42% say they do not have someone who advocates for them in their professional life. A third say this lack of mentorship, advocacy, or support from a professional network has held them back in their careers.

With this in mind, employers must ensure their employees have a mentor and advocate within their workplace through formalized programming. Mentors and advocates play important roles in terms of guiding employees through career mapping processes, setting and tracking related goals, and communicating employee needs to higher leadership. They foster reliable 1:1 communication streams, ensuring workers regularly feel seen and heard. By facilitating such connections, leaders can help workers to plant roots within their organizations and identify paths for internal mobility, ultimately leading to greater employee satisfaction and loyalty, and in turn, higher rates of retention.

Embracing the Role of Employee Resource Groups

As with 1:1 mentorship programs, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have long been viewed as a valuable workplace tool for growing employees’ professional support networks. However, greater accessibility to these groups is still needed. While the Career Optimism Index finds that 69% of Americans are engaging with employee resource groups to some degree, half of these workers (49%) say they need support in their engagement and 48% say that engaging in resource groups is not even accessible to them in their career.

Organizations must integrate ERGs into company culture with intention. Regular, clear communication about what ERGs are available, who can be contacted to get involved, and what virtual and live programming is planned in upcoming weeks and months is an important first step.

When employees identify ERGs they’d like to engage with, the organization should facilitate 1:1 connections within those groups. This way, employees can benefit from learnings and new relationships with those who have similar life experiences, both on a micro and macro level. In turn, employees will become further invested in their workplace community and long-term career trajectory within that organization.  

Providing Opportunities for Continuous Skilling

Skilling has also proven to be a crucial element of employee engagement, as 70% of American workers say if their company gave them more opportunities to apply new skills, they would be more likely to stay throughout their career. This is an area where more direct coaching and support is required, as well; over a third of Americans (37%) say they do not have access to opportunities to develop skills they need to advance in their career. Furthermore, there is a disconnect between employees and employers on how new skills can lead to growth or reward for employees: 58% of workers say their employer or company makes this clear, in comparison to 84% of employers who believe they make it clear.

Investing in ongoing formal and informal skilling opportunities with clear systems for tracking progress and implementing skills acquired on the job is critical for retaining workers long-term. Employees should have the flexibility to pursue such learning and development opportunities through a multitude of avenues, in order to align with varied schedules and interests, whether that be through lunch-and-learns or formal coursework. Creating a multitude of career pathways within an organization through such skilling programs allows employees to envision a future within that organization that can evolve as they do.

The Bottom Line

Employees are prepared to make drastic moves if their needs are not being fulfilled in their current place of work; the Career Optimism Index indicates that 30% of Americans would quit their jobs without having another one lined up and 46% would leave their company if offered a severance package of three months pay. Luckily, the solutions for mitigating this are clear. Employees today want to feel seen and understood. When the appropriate employer support is provided to meet these desires, improved engagement and retention will follow. By encouraging continuous career progression through formalized, fully integrated skilling and mentorship programs, leaders will create stronger, more knowledgeable, and adaptable workforces that are invested in their organization for the long haul.

Author Bio

John Woods, Ph.D. is Provost and Chief Academic Officer at University of Phoenix.