There’s a million different ways to improve employee retention at your store, but many of them focus only on the short term. Recognizing your employees with an Employee of the Month program is nice, but that can often fade into background noise for your more experienced employees—who are also the ones you can’t afford to lose. Having frequent programs and attempting to make each one unique–so they remain motivational–can be very taxing on your resources as well.
Start Thinking Long-term
The best strategy to retain employees—old and new alike—is to focus on the future, providing your employees with the training they need today to excel on a career path within your company going into the future. Programs like Gears to Your Career® can set up your employees for continued success within your company in a couple different ways:
Visualize the Future: One of the strongest driving forces in employee retention is showing your team members their potential career path if they stay with the company. Having a program that clearly lays out their progression so they know what’s coming, and how close they are to their goal, can do wonders in this regard.
Find Their Passion: Having a job that you enjoy and are passionate about is key to being happy where you work; you should want your employees to feel the same. Allow employees to choose a direction for their career, whether they think they’ll enjoy being a store manager one day, or if they’d prefer a position focusing on merchandising, category management, food service, or any other aspect of the business. Not only will your employees be more likely to enjoy the job they chose based on their own interests, but they’ll always appreciate being able to make that choice in the first place.
Back Them Up: It can be tough to change positions, so you want your program to make it as easy as possible on your employees—else the stress builds up and they consider leaving. Building career paths within your learning management system can help you train your employees in preparation for their future role in your company, not just for where they are now, reducing that new-position stress.
Gears to Your Career
Programs like Gears to Your Career, which lay out career paths for your employees, can have a huge impact on retention rates in any industry. Employing custom learning paths and the Gears To Your Career philosophy with the trainingGrid® LMS can prepare employees for promotion and leadership roles, making transitions much easier on both you and your team.
