Are you training your top people for their next employer?
June 17, 2011 by Tim GouldPosted in: Communication, HR Training, Management, Retention and turnover, Special Report
A new study says some talent development programs could actually increase turnover rates.
American businesses spend billions of dollars training employees to produce a more productive and committed workforce.
But University of Iowa researchers have found that employees feel little compulsion to stay with an employer that provides professional development if they don’t see any career advancement opportunities.
“Only those employees who can see a way forward in their careers will stay with an employer,” said Scott Seibert, an associate professor at the university’s Tippie College of Business.
Here’s the ominous message: Offering training without providing opportunities to apply the new skills “might simply make workers more employable by other firms,” said Seibert.
Loyalty’s lacking
Seibert and Maria Kraimer, another associate professor at the business school, surveyed 246 matched employee and supervisor pairs at a Fortune 500 firm. They asked whether their employer provided adequate professional development programs, and if they believed the organization offered future career opportunities that were of interest to them.
They found that employees who participated in professional development opportunities were more likely to say they would stay with their employer only if they saw attractive career possibilities. Few felt a responsibility to stay with their current employer if they saw no career advancement opportunities.
Bottom line: Providing developmental opportunities for employees may serve as a temporary morale builder. But in the long run, if employers don’t give workers the chance to stretch their newly acquired skill sets, workers are liable to look for jobs where they can.
And all those training dollars go down the drain.
The study, Antecedents and Outcomes of Organizational Support for Development: The Critical Role of Career Opportunities, was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. To look at an abstract, go here.
Tags: Maria Kraimer, Scott Seibert, study, training, turnover, University of Iowa
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June 20th, 2011 at 8:33 am
The real linkage is the causality. Employees who believe the training won’t help them reach the goal, find other ways to reach their goals.
The training itself may not be the problem. The problem could be something cultural instead. For example, employees may believe promotional/development opportunities are reserved for those who are politically savvy vs. those who have core skills. All the training in the world won’t solve a culture problem!
June 21st, 2011 at 11:14 am
Like the article said, if you provide employees an opportunity to learn new skills you better provide them with an opportunity to use them. But training is always a risk on the employer’s part because there is just no way to guarantee an employee will stay with them. So, one could ask: Can we afford to train our employees? And one could answer: Can we afford to NOT train our employees?