Before 2023 started, I read an article that stated “hiring, retention, and employee experience will be the top issues for HR professionals heading into the new year.”
This quote was from Jay Campbell and David Witt who had reviewed the early results from The Ken Blanchard Companies® recent trend survey that involved more than 700 leadership, learning, and talent development professionals who took part in this year’s annual survey.
They went on to say that “some 76% of respondents believe hiring will be more difficult in 2023 than it was in 2022. And 79% of respondents report that employee retention will be even more of a challenge next year.”
Campbell then stated, “Along with the expected challenges of retaining talented employees and reducing turnover, another top challenge for companies in 2023 will be improving the employee experience across the organization.”
Employee engagement is challenging for any company, big or small, for a variety of reasons.
We are almost halfway through the year and these issues are not going away as we all know.
Some of these issues include that we currently have five generations in the workplace that view work differently; many of these organizations either have employees who are from other countries and/or their customer base is global; and mental health issues which many leaders do not know how to handle.
Add the pandemic to this mix so leaders are now facing resistance from workers who do not want to commute every day and would rather work from home.
So many challenges and no one course of action is perfect!
One thing that most would agree with is that many employees want to be in a work environment where they are learning and growing. 
Companies recognize the value of conducting trainings so their employees can develop, however, they fall short because they do not reinforce it.
Many employees learn new things but the feedback I receive is that they don’t have enough opportunities to apply them.
So most if not all their notes, materials, etc. get thrown on a shelf gathering dust.
This is the same regardless if it is in-person workshops, virtual classes, or conference break out sessions.
One way to reinforce learning is for the attendees to be responsible for teaching others what they learned when they get back to the office.
This not only reinforces learning for the people who attended the trainings but also gives them an opportunity to work on their presentation skills.
Another way is by pairing the participants and have them set goals on how they want to utilize their training to improve their performance.
By having an accountability partner, they are more apt to achieve their goals and even surpass them.
It also creates a bond between two people who may not have ever interacted in the office.
In addition, by sharing they may get a different perspective on how others perceived the information which could change the way they go about certain tasks and deal with others.
Leaders need to be more creative in how they maintain or better yet increase employee engagement if they want to improve employee retention.
It is very expensive to replace an employee at any level besides being harmful to morale.
By offering trainings for even the most junior members of the organization and then letting them apply what they learn, your organization will thrive in an ever changing world.