3 Must-Read Reasons why an LMS Improves Talent Retention

Back in June 2012, WorldatWork – a global non-profit association setup to focus on how businesses can attract, motivate and retain employees – ran a study on the Retention of Key Talent and the Role of Rewards.

Now, of course, employees can leave your company for a variety of different reasons – some may be unique to your industry, business, culture or simply the nature of the role held by each employee in question.

However, in their report, WorldatWork summarised the most frequently given reasons for quitting a job from their research sample, and the findings are really quite illuminating for any business.

Some of the top reasons why employees quit their jobs (WaW Report):

• Dissatisfaction with job or work responsibilities
• Inadequate use of employee’s skills and behaviour
• Workloads are too heavy
• Work-life balance issues
• Job insecurity
• Lack of promotional opportunities
• Lack of training and development opportunities
• Feelings that pay levels are unfair relative to employee’s performance and contribution
• Opportunity to earn more pay elsewhere
• Lack of empowerment or influence on the job

(To see the full list, view the report).

But how do you – as an organization – ensure that your employees don’t leave your business for one of these reasons?

That’s where the role of a Learning Management System (LMS) comes in – below I’ll highlight why investing in an LMS can have a remarkably positive impact on your organization’s talent retention. I’ll demonstrate exactly how the use of an LMS in employee management can address all of the above concerns.

An individual investment and interest

Talented employees want to be recognised.

An LMS allows management to truly map out each individual employee’s future with the company – and personalise it so that it’s fit for each individual’s needs. Obviously from a resource-based perspective, this an investment, and take it from me – it feels like your seniors have really taken the time to develop an interest in what you would like from your time with the company. This interest provides people with job security, it gives people confidence, motivation and nurtures a better attitude to work, ultimately, making them feel more valued.

Feeling valued is important in tackling the work/life balance dilemma – an age-old issue that understandably pains employees who are committed to both their family and their career. When working in an environment in which there is mutual trust and suitable support systems in place, it’s increasingly realistic that employees and management can work towards solving such issues and implementing the necessary measures. It’s simply more approachable in this type of environment.

Also, when you introduce an LMS to your workforce management, you’ll soon realize that it’ll be much easier to organize a team of individuals who are able to work smarter for the following reasons:

• Your staff feel valued and thus work harder in the time they spend working.
• Your staff’s development is better nurtured, meaning they’ll become greater at their jobs over time.
• As a workforce, your staff will hold a more positive shared vision and mentality towards their jobs and work; this will create an environment which reduces barriers to achieving excellence.

Because of this, both individuals and the company will enjoy increased success in achieving objectives on all levels – and why wouldn’t you want to work for a successful organization?

Personalized progression plan

It’s so simple to coordinate internal employee progression and promotional opportunities when you have an LMS.

Providing each employee with a career plan customized to their distinct desires will allow you to work with each individual employee in identifying exactly what they need to achieve in their role to gain promotion within the company. Using an LMS, it’s satisfyingly straightforward to align this with training and development progression and outcomes, to ensure staff have a clear timescale of when you expect them to be ready and capable of promotion, should they meet their objectives.

Providing attainable opportunities for progression will help to quell your employee’s dissatisfaction with their current role as you work with them to adapt and evolve their job into one which they will truly thrive in. You must collaborate with your employee’s in the creation of this plan – this will aid you in establishing a workforce of happy people who feel empowered and satisfied that their skills and knowledge are being put to the best use.

Furthermore, tying incentives, bonuses, raises and promotions to a structured progression plan (as detailed above) nullifies any concerns of an imbalance between performance and pay. It’s instantly visible how performance affects pay, and employees will have a greater insight into how they can achieve the level of pay they feel they deserve using this method of management.

Tip: Remember to keep your employee’s career progression plans relatively loose – it can be intimidatingly overwhelming to plan a person’s life for them; it can take away their sense of control.

Tailored training and development

A lack of training and development is – according to the WaW Study – one of the main reasons that employees look elsewhere for work. Talented individuals have become so through hard work and a focus on betterment – if you can’t offer more of that, then they’re out.

You absolutely must invest in creating relevant, valuable training and development opportunities, crafted for each individual staff member and their own requirements. Each employee will have different needs, and if you’re able to equip them with the specific development that they require, they’ll be greater assets for your company.

Put simply, they’ll be better at their job, managing their workload and generally increasingly motivated with a healthy attitude to work.

Still not convinced that handling your workforce’s training and development using an LMS is a worthwhile investment?

Schedule a demo with us for advice on your options.

Author bio: Jordan Bradley works for High Speed Training (HST), a fully accredited specialist eLearning course provider based in the UK. He enjoys his responsibility of managing HST’s Hub – a blog which posts weekly insightful articles on a range of topics related to their array of online courses. Jordan spends the rest of his time running around the countryside, travelling on weekends to visit friends he wished lived closer, and fighting hard in the battle against laziness, amongst other things.

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