6 Methods To Upskill Staffers

What are the best employee retention practices? – Top upskilling and requalification strategies

One of the benefits of implementing an education and retraining program is the reduction in employee turnover. However, you need the right tools and techniques to retain top performers and build key skills cost-effectively. The following strategies can help you reduce the cost of hiring and onboarding new employees, increase employee satisfaction, and achieve long-term business success. But that’s just the tip of the performance iceberg when starting a loyalty program.

eBook publication

Fundamentals of Education and Retraining: How to Address the Emerging Challenges of the Future of Work

Discover How to Cultivate Core Competencies and Build Critical Skills to Overcome Obstacles While Working Remotely!

What are the main reasons for employee retention?

Before talking about how you can improve and reduce staff turnover, it’s important to understand why employees stay in the first place. Does training increase employee loyalty? How does your corporate culture affect the employee turnover equation? Aside from salary and their benefit package, here are some of the top reasons employees stay with their current company:

Smooth onboarding
Supportive corporate culture
Fulfillment and job satisfaction
Personalized online training
Promotion opportunities
Effective team dynamics

Conduct surveys, polls, and questionnaires as part of your loyalty program to find out what makes your employees tick … and stick with it. This data will help you tailor every aspect of your L&D strategy as you understand what to expect from your company and how to meet your unique needs.

This is how you qualify existing employees and sharpen the bond

Personal talent development is in great demand among applicants who can bring their unique experience and know-how to your company. It is therefore not surprising that existing employees expect continuous support and personalized resources in order to close any gaps that arise on site. These workplace retention strategies can help you lower turnover rates and improve performance management in 2021 and beyond:

1. Start personal learning plans

The focus of the training on employee loyalty is individualization, in which employees should be able to go their own way depending on their roles and tasks. Because of this, many companies are adopting personalized plans to quickly fill in gaps and allow greater L&D flexibility, which increases satisfaction scores. For example, one of your sales reps may focus on personal areas to find improvement and training opportunities to get that big promotion. Thanks to personal homepages and recommendations, they can go their own way to expand their talents independently.

2. Use gamification badges to keep employees engaged

Employees may need a nudge to actively participate in training and retraining courses. Gamification badges not only awaken your intrinsic motivation, but also help you track performance and overall progress. The key is to target the badges to specific skills development behaviors and milestones. For example, they can award a badge after completing a customer service certification path that ensures they have mastered the basics of interpersonal skills. Another great benefit of badges is that they can be used by employees to show that they have the necessary know-how and experience and thereby stand out from the crowd as potential managers and / or training mentors.

3. Fuel-friendly competition with leaderboards

A successful employee loyalty program usually involves a good dose of competition. We’re not suggesting that you encourage full-blown brawls by pitting peers against like-minded people, but leaderboards can encourage camaraderie and spark their competitive spirit. The secret is to give everyone an even playing field. For example, new employees are already disadvantaged when they join the team if the service provider has too many points. The newcomer can never catch up because the experienced employee has gained too much rank in the ranking. You can restart the board after a certain period of time or group employees according to their stage of travel. Another option is to create a new leaderboard for each certification path or course if everyone is enrolling at the same time.

4. Offer just-in-time training tools

JIT tools are ideal for managing employee retention because they provide discrete, ongoing support. Staff can access the library when needed, such as when they discover an underlying skill gap or cannot complete a task. They even have the option to continue their education without having to make space in their busy schedule as all activities are bite-sized. Real-life scenarios are a prime example of micro-learning that provides hands-on, hands-on experience without risk. Last but not least, just-in-time training courses help reduce employee turnover, as they can fall back on a safety net that strengthens their self-confidence.

5. Promotion of social learning

Social learning and peer-based feedback are another targeted approach to improving employee retention while reducing L&D costs. For example, employees can share their insights and unique experiences through user-generated content. Everyone has access to topic- or task-oriented message boards to save time and close gaps immediately. You can even set up boards that focus on specific skills or competencies for easy learning. Above all, social learning facilitates the exchange of knowledge from a distance, so that every member of your organization can contribute and exchange ideas.

6. Empower team leaders with skill dashboards

Employees should have detailed oversight over skill development. Preferably a personalized skills dashboard that’s packed with recommendations, upcoming courses based on your job roles, and feedback. They know what’s next on their certification path based on previous training performance, or they can see their place on the leaderboard. However, leaders also need to have a clear view of their team’s performance and progress at a glance. For example, how many of your employees have already completed compulsory training and earned the coveted badge. In short, executives need integrated support so that they can in turn support their departments and address emerging weaknesses directly.

How to Use an LMS to Generate Actionable Insights

The global pandemic has changed the way we think about remote working and virtual training. It is no longer a luxury that only Fortune 500 companies can afford as more and more SMBs are moving to teleworking to mitigate financial and security risks. Fortunately, you can implement a learning management system like Adobe Captivate Prime to collect actionable data and use it for your retention techniques. For example, identify patterns that may indicate a deeper problem with your online training program or skill building library. Reports and data visualizations give you the insights you need to train your employees and develop their talents instead of finding replacements.

Download the eBook Upskilling and Reskilling Essentials: How To Address the Emerging Challenges of the Future of Work to learn how to nurture in-house talent regardless of your budget or staff size. You can also attend the webinar to use the learning to steer your business in the right direction.