Recently, one of my coaching clients asked about how to grow her current employees. She said that like many businesses she was having trouble finding new talent, but she wanted to do a better job of taking care of her existing talent. Rather than trying to completely reinvent the wheel, I did a little Googling and found these excellent suggestions.
Interns – Company Development & Advancement
Internships are not only a great opportunity to encourage growth, but one of the main benefits interns provide leadership teams is offering new perspectives to learn from. With new insight from undergraduate, graduate or past work experiences in other industries, interns provide leaders a chance to self-reflect on their current company practices and implement new ones.
1. Circulate anonymous surveys or pulse surveys
- This is an easy, non-intimidating way to get honest feedback about your current business practices. As a leader, remember to not take this feedback personally. Instead, actively listen to all feedback and grow together to form a better, stronger future. Also, give a timeline of actionable change that is going to come to fruition because of intern feedback.
2. Provide time in final interviews for interns that are becoming full-time employees
- Take some time at the beginning or end of an internship for them to give their feedback, allowing them to feel heard and appreciated. As a leader, ask them questions about topics such as work-life balance, community involvement or diversity and inclusion and how you can be better as a leader and as a company. Remember, to retain top talent, these employees are looking for a leader that they both respect and admire.
Entry-Level Employees – Professional Development & Advancement
Entry-level employees are not only an important part of business, but they are crucial to the future of you and your company. One large myth about entry-level employees is that after spending time and money to secure and onboard them, they will leave for another job. But, 93% of employees stay at a company longer if they have chances to grow their skills base and careers. As a leader, take this opportunity to allow your entry-level employees to fine tune soft skills and role-specific skills.
1. Give them meet and greet, shadowing or mentorship opportunities
- As a leader, incorporate multiple different types of face-to-face networking and learning sessions. Even take this time to personally meet with employees that you typically don’t interact with and understand the current challenges of their role. Also, encourage your employees to have multiple mentors to help with different aspects of their job that they can improve on.
2. Offer “desk duties” or “desk time”
- Give entry-level employees independent work time to access online learning materials like LinkedIn certificate badges. While this might take away from their billable time, it will give them time to hone competencies. As a leader, be involved in their development and circle back with them to keep up to date about their recent accomplishments.
Long-Term Employees – Personal Development & Advancement
Long-term employees are important for a wide range of reasons. From knowing current customers and relationships to being able to seamlessly execute responsibilities that they are delegated. But, 1 in 4 workers quit their jobs as the Great Resignation and COVID-19 continued at the end of 2021, with a high number of them being tenured employees with five to 15 years of experience. As a leader, it’s not enough to be their boss. Rather, you have to holistically support and encourage them to let them know that they are much more than just employees.
1. Administer online material to help them with common stressors
- The two most common concerns that your employees have are work and finances, which are only amplified by the ongoing economic and social climate. To provide peace of mind to your long-term employees, give them resources to ease their minds and self-reflect on their own habits. For example, give them resources as to how they can get out of credit card debt and pay large expenses like college tuition with a home equity loan, or how they can plan for retirement and select the right social security claiming strategy. Help them plan for their future and they will likely be more enthusiastic about spending their future at your company.
2. Encourage employee ERG’s
- For more of a collaborative approach to these topics, allow employees to take the initiative to create ERG’s (Employee Resource Groups) on any issues that they are passionate about. As a leader, attend events or meetings that they have. Or use your own network and resources to invite professionals or consultants who offer training and workshops to help them further develop.
As you have heard me say many times, the future success of your organization is completely dependent on the quality of the people you can get, grow, and keep on your team. Finding new talent is critical to success but taking great care of your current talent is even more important.
If you want to get in contact with me, I’d love to hear from you. Please visit my site at https://johnspence.com/contact/ and let me know how I can help.
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