The premise of this two part series is that there is a major issue now facing US companies as the economy continues to improve and the record number of people retiring exceeds the supply of new qualified talent entering the work place.

In Part 1 (link) I focused on three top sources of bringing in new talent. But once you obtain the best talent, how do you keep them engaged and growing? And to make the issue worse, as the economy continues to improve, you competitors are going to come after your best people to lure them away to greener pastures. You need to actively show your employees that the company cares about their career growth and that great future possibilities are available within your enterprise.

The importance of providing a skills and career growth value proposition is highlighted in the SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) January/February 2015 “HR Magazine” in a feature story called “What’s in Store for HR in 2015.” In fact, a majority, 5 of the 9 predictions, supports this theme of the importance of talent development:
• Culture, diversity, engagement and retention will be front-burner issues.
• Corporate learning will be transformed and will take on more importance
• Talent mobility and career management strategies will become necessary to complete
• Leaders will invest in talent analytics and workforce planning
• HR teams will get a new design and focus on professional development

When your best talent leaves to go somewhere else (and let’s face it, it normally is your best who are recruited and lured away by competitors), the replacement cost in terms of recruiting, hiring and onboarding is huge! The cost per employee can often range from 1 to 1.5 times annual salary. Yet to invest in some robust career development tools to excite and retain your employees may even cost less than replacing one employee! Get proactive and grow your people instead of spending millions of dollars on “employee replacement costs.”

A good talent growth strategy will involve engaging employees in growing skills within their current position as well as giving them tools to plan meaningful longer range careers within your enterprise (see my past blog on short range and longer range development.) On the career growth side, I offer an innovative yet proven approach based on career mapping that is tailored to your enterprise and engages employees enthusiastically in longer range career planning.

Check out the Total Engagement Career Mapping offering as well as reading this ZipRecruiter article about my process. In addition, here is another article that demonstrates how to calculate a business case for investment in employee career development, ideal for securing the necessary budget from your CFO. And then contact me today to request my two page offering spec sheet and / or to set up an appointment to discuss how Total Engagement Career Mapping can work within your company.