3 ways to boost retention through professional development

connections and outcomes for employees working in a 100% virtual environment.

That’s why Weaver started a new ritual: a book club, which gave employees the opportunity to think and learn together. As Weaver told me, the book club ritual “let [them] laugh together, talk candidly and even demonstrate real vulnerabilities. It’s been so important to show up as our ‘full human self’ during this time … team dynamics are being strengthened paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter.”

Provide coaching beyond the C-suite

Coaching is one of the most requested employee benefits and is a proven win. However, until recently, coaching was reserved mostly for senior executives and high performers whom a company deemed worthy of investment. Over the last few years (and especially since the pandemic), managers and HR leaders have been overwhelmed by the employee need for coaching, especially since they don’t have time to do it themselves.

Unlike many retailers, in late 2021, Sam’s Club’s 600 locations were fully employed. How did they do it? In a SHRM article, senior director of field learning and development, Jennifer Buchanan, attributes the success to the company’s robust employee development program, where all 95,000 associates are able to “develop essential skills for the roles they’re in now, as well as the roles they’d like to see themselves in down the line.”

Betterment, an investment software company, provides one-on-one coaching to employees at all levels. Directors and above get six sessions per year, and anyone below director gets three sessions per year. As Susan Justus, former VP/ head of talent development described to me, “Employees look to coaches when they’re trying to get promoted, wondering how to skillfully advocate for themselves in meetings or struggling with a hard time managing a team member and not sure how to have this hard conversation.”

Another exciting development in the coaching space is increasing access. There’s a whole new category of companies popping up that offer organizations coaching beyond the C-suite. For instance:

• Bravely, which has a “populationwide, bottoms-up” approach to coaching and can provide all employees unlimited access to coaches.

• Terawatt (a client of mine), an early-stage startup that provides group coaching, or what they call “masterminds,” to groups of employees across the organization.

• Torch, a data-driven platform that helps HR leaders offer classes, coaching and mentoring to employees.

• Modern Health (a company I’m an investor in), which uses AI to determine what type of support is the best fit, from life and career coaching to therapy, and whose growth puts it in “unicorn” status.

Coaching allows people to really take their personal and professional development to the next level. As Deloitte notes, “A coaching culture is the practice that’s most highly correlated with business performance, employee engagement and overall retention,” and companies that are considered high-impact leadership organizations “spend 1.5–3 times more on management development than their peers.”

People’s lives and priorities are changing in dramatic ways before our very eyes. By offering those very same people the thing they want the most –on-the-job personal and professional development – not only will you invite employees to be a part of your team and encourage them to stay, but you’ll be contributing to a world that’s more rewarding for everyone. z z z

A version of this article appeared in the April 5, 2022, issue of Harvard Business Review. Reprinted with permission.

©2023 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.

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