Talent Connection Blog

Employee engagement surveys are used by 92 percent of companies. This is to be expected, considering 80 percent of senior leaders rank employee engagement as a critical part of achieving business objectives. The traditional employee engagement survey looked for measurements of happiness and contentment in employees’ roles with questions like, “Do you feel you’ve received enough recognition?” But with new generations joining the workforce it’s time for a more updated employee engagement survey.

In 2014, employee development was listed as a top priority more than any other area by the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Great Places to Work. This makes sense, considering on-the-job employee development accounts for up to 75 percent of effective learning. Take a look at these 14 methods for employee development so your organization is effectively nurturing your biggest effective learning tactic.

According to IDC, U.S. and U.K. employees cost businesses approximately $37 billion each year due to a lack of understanding of their roles and requirements. Not only does employee onboarding reduce on-the-job learning costs, it also saves time on training, as well as increases morale and turnover. Remember these rules to work by for the optimal employee onboarding experience.

Workforce assessments go hand-in-hand with workforce planning. The data provided by workforce assessments gives you the tools and knowledge you need to effectively implement a number of necessary workplace processes involved in workforce planning. There are 8 common components of a workforce plan that benefit from the objective data provided by workforce assessments: recruiting, retention, succession planning, performance management, career pathing, turnover, redeployment, and leadership development. Keep reading to see how each of these is benefited by workforce assessment data.

In a recent survey, 97 percent of top 1000 CEOs claimed that access to and retention of key talent are their top priorities. This is the case for two reasons. One, turnover is expensive—the financial impact is approximately 30 to 250 percent of annual salaries, according to New York Times. Two, top performers spur business performance. In fact, according to a McKinsey study, high performers in operational roles can increase productivity up to 40 percent, those in management roles can increase profit by 49 percent, and those in sales roles can increase revenue by 67 percent. This is more than enough reason to establish a strategy for talent management.

Two key terms related to bench strength are continuity and adaptation. Bench strength equips your team with the necessary tools for adapting to surprise turnover or illness and maintaining continuity in your business. A strong bench also allows companies the peace of mind to take bigger leaps, because the company is confident that their bench will be able to adapt and continue progressing forward.