How to Grow a Sustainable Workforce

The competition for talent is tight and won’t be better anytime soon. Record levels of unemployment and an extraordinary number of job openings is resulting in chaos. But “cool” offices that look like they were taken directly from the pages of a trendy magazine and all the free beer in the world aren’t enough to entice prospective employees to choose your organization over others.
What’s an employer to do? Here’s what your dream employees desire:

A Path for Growth and Continued Development

Surveys consistently show that employees rank opportunities for professional development, including training and career planning, as their top priority. More than ever, employees, especially millennials, want to be part of a company that believes in them as much as they believe in it.

Companies that help their employees grow, both personally and professionally, will be much more successful in attracting and retaining talent than organizations that invest elsewhere. When selecting development opportunities, choose the ones that will help employees transfer knowledge and application back on the job. Learning in real time, with the ability to practice concepts with coaches, is much more effective than simply attending a passive workshop, where they’ll probably forget most of what they learned the minute they leave the session.

Opportunity

It’s great when a company invests in the learning and development of its people, but employees appreciate opportunity even more. In a strong employment market, more people are on the lookout for a better future. If you don’t give it to them, someone else will.

Before going outside the company to fill jobs, look inside to see if there are employees who can succeed in these open roles. Some may need additional training, but in this tough hiring environment, you will likely have to train any new hire you find, too.

Great Leadership

No one goes into a leadership role thinking, “I’m going to be the worst boss ever!” Yet, if we ask people to talk about their current supervisor, many would describe someone who could fit into the “bad boss” category. There wouldn’t be such a plethora of poor managers if companies invested half as much money into their leaders as they do into product development or the weekly watering of the office plants.

Leadership development opportunities have never been more accessible or reasonably priced than they are today. In fact, leaders don’t even have to leave their office to attend training; they can access online courses and webinars from the comforts of their own desk chair. With sufficient resources, organizations can also bring in executive coaches to help leaders go from not-so-bad to really great.

Feedback

Why is it so difficult for leaders to give their employees something they want and need, especially when it doesn’t cost a dime? It’s a million-dollar question. It’s likely that many managers feel uncomfortable delivering bad news. They forget that there is such a thing as positive feedback, which is as important as negative feedback.

It’s unfair to assume that managers naturally know how to communicate with their people. Many leaders struggle with communication — which is unfortunate, as they need to communicate effectively so their team members understand their expectations. The good news is that we can teach people how to provide meaningful feedback in a way that preserves relationships.

Countless organizations are laboring under the misconception that people will grow wherever they are planted. If that were true, fewer employees would be dying on the vine. The conditions must be right for optimal growth and production. As your organization looks to grow, remember to continuously develop and nurture employees. Start by seeding learning opportunities throughout your organization. Before long, you’ll have a forest of evergreen talent.

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