Career Conversations as a Pathway to Employee Retention

“Limited awareness of roles and a perceived lack of support from managers means that for many, it has become easier to leave and grow than squiggle — that is, change roles and develop in different directions — and stay,” write Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis in the Harvard Business Review. To support employees seeking a pathway to growth, they recommend holding ‘career conversations:’ “The purpose of a high-quality career conversation should be two-fold: to give employees the permission to be curious about where their career could take them and the practical support to make progress.” They suggest the following three questions to invite employees to discover their strengths and think through how they might use them within your organization: What motivates you most about the work you do today? What are the talents you want to build a reputation for? What career possibilities would you like to learn more about? In “Employee Retention: It’s All About Empowering Staff,” Lisa Taylor-Cooke and Meaghan Oates share how they focus on staff retention as a key strategy for their rural program. Among other approaches, they find concrete ways to support their employees’ professional growth goals: “Teachers in my program can choose to be part of the Early Education Apprenticeship Program, which pays for teachers to obtain their child development associate from the Council for Professional Recognition…To support teachers pursuing their CDA or associate’s degrees, we offer paid time during the work day for completing coursework. We also encourage teachers to meet at the child care center as needed in the evenings to access WiFi, since we are in a rural area that sometimes has limited or sparse WiFi access. Offering these incentives demonstrates that we value our teachers as professionals engaged in lifelong learning.”

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