Smart Leaders Make Smart Investments in Their Employees

 

It’s more important than ever to be strategically looking at opportunities that are smart investments in the professional development of your employees. Recently, Forbes Magazine highlighted a CareerBuilder survey. 3,008 workers were polled nationwide to find out who is most likely to change jobs in 2014. 18% said they were generally dissatisfied and 58% of those intend to change jobs this year. Obviously, employee engagement and retention is emerging as the greatest challenge facing leaders today. So as a leader we need to ask ourselves, what can we do to reduce the percentage and retain our talent?

 

Interview Right: Ensure that you are vetting and acquiring talent that is the right fit for the job. In a recent article, the Vice President of Influence & Co. @Ryan O’Connell agrees, “In interviews, besides asking about a candidate’s qualifications, I like to figure out what type of person they are, what they like to do outside of work, and what their true passions are… if we’re going to build this company right and have fun along the way, we want people who we’re going to like being around and people who will challenge us to be a better company.” 

 

Not only is it important to look for the right character traits but it’s equally as important to ensure you know what traits to look for. Dr. Peter Guy, an expert in hiring and selection, says “businesses need to make sure that when they post the job description that they also understand what character traits match the job description that they are posting.” Dr. Guy has designed a Character Assessment Tool that assists with firms in matching traits to job descriptions.

 

Professional Development: Provide opportunities like continuing education tuition and business coaches that focus on knowledge that will provide confidence for your employees to grow and learn professionally. Let your employees know that you believe investing in them is a smart investment and that allowing them to tap into their passion and focus their time and energy on projects that they can enjoy will provide them opportunities for them to grow within the company. “Just as employees should be eager to learn and develop their skills, an organization needs to foster that growth,” says Margot Ross-Graham, vice-president of integration at Williams Engineering Canada quoted in the Alberta Venture Magazine article How to turn gen-X and Millennial employees into your company’s next leaders.

 

Leaders that make smart investments will be rewarded, not only with a strong employee retention rate, but also with loyal employees who contribute to your organization’s success—for the long-term.