Attract, Retain and Develop Top Talent
Looking for ways to attract, retain and develop top talent?
According to media reports, over 90 percent of employees would leave their jobs if there were no opportunities to learn and grow. The good news is it may be easier than you think to provide them with a chance to grow.
I recently participated in a discussion group about this concept and how to create thriving workplace cultures. What I learned there could be a low-cost game changer.
The company leaders I spoke with mentioned they created a Job-Sharing program (but not in the traditional HR sense).
Traditional Job Sharing refers to an arrangement where two individuals split a full-time job. But in an innovative new way, the company creates a job sharing process, which leads to the exchange of information between people, teams or organizations. They set up a system for teams and departments to post things they need help with. When any employee has free time (even just 30 minutes), that employee reaches out to the department supervisor in need of assistance and lends a helping hand.
I call this Skill Sharing. And the benefits are immense.
Skill sharing can help your company:
Build skills and share skills where the work need is greatest – this builds efficiency!
Build cross-functional, cooperative relationships among employees – they will begin to learn about other areas of the company and their challenges. Others who receive this help may step up in the future to offer assistance.
Empower employees to have some say or control over their work and where they can contribute best – even if just for a few minutes. We all want some agency and say in our life.
Provide job previews so employees may consider internal movement prior to leaving the company. A win if you can retain that trained talent somewhere inside the company. In addition, managers in the company will get to have previews of other employees and their skills to help them with succession planning and future internal hiring.
Cross-pollinate people and ideas over time. This will create new innovative thinking for solving problems in a workflow or making jobs and processes more efficient. It may cause the creation of new, easy-to-use and pass along job aids, so that the short-term Skill Sharing program can be done seamlessly with a variety of people.
Create a cost-effective way to promote cross-training and knowledge sharing.
From employee development to succession planning to reducing turnover, offering skill sharing opportunities in your workplace can lead to excellent results and changes.
I’d love to hear what you think: Would you try skill sharing in your workplace?