Demonstrating that you’re invested in your employees’ learning and development has a huge impact on turnover. Here are ways to make it work for you

“What if we spend time and money developing our people and they leave?” a CEO asks their Head of HR. 

They respond, “What if we don’t, and they stay?”

This anecdote has often been used to illustrate the risk of not investing in employees. However, research from employee experience platform Culture Amp suggests the exchange should involve a third person.

Right after the Head of HR gives their response, an HR data analyst should chime in and say. “If we don’t develop our employees, they will definitely leave.”

It’s a sentiment backed up by Culture Amp research that shows that 48 per cent of leavers cite a lack of career or skills development as a major reason for moving on.

Show me the learning

There’s a high correlation between how staff feel their career is being nurtured and the most crucial people metrics, says Dany Holbrook, Senior People Scientist at Culture Amp.

“From the data we’ve collected, we know that if an employee believes a company is truly contributing to their development, engagement is likely to be around 83 per cent –  ten points higher than the global average,” she says. 

“If they don’t think the company is doing that, it could be as low as 19 per cent. That’s a huge difference.”

Holbrook, who was a learning and development (L&D) professional for 15 years prior to focusing on people science, is speaking ahead of Culture First APAC on September 7, a free, one-day virtual showcase of leading experts on building culture. She says low engagement scores translate to a departure risk. 

“We looked at exit survey data from over 100,000 people globally and found the issues most often cited are concerns around development and career.”

These are more commonly mentioned than compensation, work-life balance and managerial behaviour combined. And it’s not just the exit survey data that will alarm business leaders.

“We have a question that asks if the company makes a great contribution to their development. If employees disagree, they’re twice as likely to leave within 12 months than the average employee. If they strongly disagree, they’re 2.5 times more likely to leave.”

It was in response to data such as this that Culture Amp saw the need to create Develop, a new module of their platform that helps companies grow and retain their people with research-backed tools.

A scientific approach to development

“Culture Amp has taken a science-first approach, leading with strengths and motivators to help individuals connect what they’re good at with what gives them energy, and using behavioural science principles to create a personalised, motivating plan.”

For example, one of the most important – and most challenging –  areas for employees is around goal setting.

“Traditionally, you might give people information about creating a SMART goal, and then say ‘go forth and create one’. But that alone doesn’t create change – that’s Behavioural Science 101.”

“We’re moving beyond just asking employees ‘Do you have a plan?’ to tracking where they see their strengths and what topics they’re focusing on developing.” – Dany Holbrook, Senior People Scientist at Culture Amp

Rather than simply telling people what they should do, Culture Amp has a goal setting experience that draws on elements of behavioural science to remove friction. It breaks it down into guided steps supported by coaching and insights, taking people from a broad idea of what they want to achieve to a series of specific, measurable objectives.

Say, for example, an employee wanted to become a better leader. 

“You would break that down. What makes a great leader? What do you want to focus on? What do you want to focus on first? What will success look like for you? Suddenly you’ve gone from a very broad concept to something targeted. 

“At the end, it almost feels like they haven’t sat down and written a goal – it just happened as a by-product of the process.”

Empowering HR and L&D to support employees

Culture Amp’s Develop module has two main benefits: empowering managers and employees to have rich development conversations, and providing L&D with valuable data to help them prioritise development activities.

“We’re moving beyond just asking employees ‘Do you have a plan?’ to tracking where they see their strengths and what topics they’re focusing on developing. It also provides real-time survey data on how confident employees are in the development process

“The refined demographic data within the platform also helps pinpoint at a glance areas of your organisation that might need additional support from HR.”

Essentially what Culture Amp does is make development conversations more effective and more productive for both parties.

“We provide additional guidance for managers to help coach them through the conversation,” Holbrook adds. “What we say is that it needs to be driven by the employee and manager – the two most important people in the room – and be a genuine, constructive talk about motivations and career aspirations.”

To find out more about how Develop can help you grow and retain your people, visit the Culture Amp website. To learn more about building culture first foundations, register for Culture First APAC and hear from keynote speakers such as Paralympian athlete and Australian of the Year  Dylan Alcott and gender equality advocate Jamila Rizvi.