It’s no secret that many companies have been struggling for years to keep their workforces staffed. Incentivizing workers to stay has become even harder as nearly 85 percent of employees say they are considering shifting jobs this year. Among the top reasons workers quit is a lack of advancement opportunities. So employers need to become more strategic when it comes to convincing workers that it’s worth their while to stay.
One of the top methods companies have developed to increase retention is providing educational opportunities so workers can advance in their careers. In fact, up to 71 percent of global organizations plan to rely more heavily on upskilling and reskilling for retention this year. Unfortunately, at the moment, only 34 percent of workers feel supported by their organization’s skill development opportunities, so it’s safe to say many of these current efforts are lacking.
The primary issue is that companies often implement standardized, one-size-fits-all upskilling programs, which fail to consider the diverse backgrounds, financial situations, and career aspirations of individual employees. These differences mean that what works for one employee might not be effective for another. To improve worker retention, businesses need to tailor their development programs to better meet the unique needs of their workforce.
Why One Size Doesn’t Fit All in Workforce Education
Many company leaders believe that simply investing in educational programs for workers will boost retention. However, the 2024 LinkedIn Learning Report reveals that 41 percent of upskilling initiatives—which are often costly and follow a uniform approach to reskill large groups of employees at once—have not progressed beyond the planning stage. Each year, fewer than 5 percent of these programs are implemented in a way that allows companies to evaluate their success effectively. The challenges in designing these programs and gaining employee support contribute to their limited success.
The same report also showed that workers will be more interested in a workforce education program if they feel it will help them progress toward specific career goals or help them stay up to date in their fields, or is personalized to their interests and needs.
Workforce education programs that meet these criteria can benefit companies just as much as employees by helping to increase overall employee engagement and productivity. Consider that as many as 70 percent of workers say learning opportunities have improved their sense of connection to an organization, while approximately 80 percent say learning adds purpose to their work.
Tailored learning opportunities also can encourage employees to learn the skills that are most necessary for the company so the organization can fill high-need positions without necessarily hiring new employees. As a result, 7 in 10 executives report that the business impact of reskilling initiatives has been greater than or equal to their investment, and nearly half say the programs are already enhancing bottom-line growth.
That means the best route for employers will be to align educational programs to in-demand job roles to address employees’ individual career goals and desires for advancement, and to meet organizational objectives. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to accommodate different learning preferences, employee backgrounds, goals, or financial statuses.
Adjusting for Learning Preferences
So how can companies ensure they’re offering each employee the learning path they need and simultaneously achieve the greatest return on investment for the company?
To optimize workforce education strategies, companies should prioritize career-aligned education paths. Before launching a training program, it’s beneficial for a company to clearly outline how different educational paths directly correlate with more lucrative and in-demand roles within the organization. This approach motivates employees by showing the potential career advancements tied to specific learning paths and also aligns their training with the company’s strategic needs.
Furthermore, designing skill paths that focus on the most in-demand work-relevant skills is one of the best ways to increase the ROI of a given workforce education program. These paths should cater to the specific types of roles available within the company and the skills employees currently possess. By doing so, the training becomes more targeted, increases its relevance, and enhances the likelihood of both employee and organizational growth.
Lastly, providing on-ramps and coaching can significantly aid employees in overcoming any previous educational gaps and help them understand and navigate their options within the company’s education programs. This support is vital in ensuring that all employees, regardless of their past experiences with education, feel equipped and confident to take full advantage of the learning opportunities available to them.
Tailoring for Affordability and Time
To make workforce education programs accessible for more members of your workforce, consider affordability. Not every employee can afford to pay upfront to advance their skills; they may have dependents to provide for or other factors that make it hard for them to get by on their salaries as it is.
One way to accommodate this is to provide upfront tuition assistance programs instead of traditional tuition reimbursement. Another is to look for less expensive eLearning programs in lieu of traditional in-person workshops, which might be more costly for the company as a whole.
Working adults also benefit from education opportunities that have flexible scheduling. Managing a full-time job and other adult responsibilities, such as raising a family or caring for aging parents, makes a full course load or in-person attendance onerous for some. Companies should work to provide online or hybrid learning opportunities with asynchronous components that can be attended to at a time convenient for the employee. The increase in online learning technologies and platforms since the pandemic has provided an easy way to do this.
Retention Through Education
Regardless of the exact method you use to provide employees with learning opportunities, you can know that worker retention will improve as you put their needs first in your educational programs. This strategy promises a more engaged and skilled workforce that will be ready to meet any challenges this next year may bring.