E-learning and LMS blog articles

Incorporating career development pathways within a  Learning Management System creates a powerful strategy for keeping talented employees within your organisation. By offering clear advancement opportunities and actively investing in employee growth, companies demonstrate genuine commitment to their workforce's professional future.

When employees can clearly visualise their potential career progression and access the learning resources needed to achieve their goals, they naturally become more engaged and motivated in their current roles. This approach not only helps employees feel genuinely valued but also significantly reduces turnover by giving them compelling reasons to build their careers internally rather than looking for growth opportunities with other employers.

So how do career development pathways integrated into your LMS improve employee retention?

• Personlised learning provides a tailored path for an individual employee that aligns with their aspirations, needs, and career goals
• LMS platforms can help provide a clearer career progression, showing employees how their current role can evolve, helping them feel more valued and invested in, which in turn, helps make them more inclined to stay with the organisation
• An LMS can increase engagement and motivation
• LMS platforms can identify and address skill gaps, facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge and empower employees to take ownership of their career development
• An LMS also can help with recognition and feedback, sharing badges, awards, certificates that highlight training success

But you know this already, so in this blog, we’re discussing an LMS use case that you may not have considered – boosting staff retention. Join us as we discuss how to improve staff retention with an LMS and explore the tools and tactics you should be using.

What causes poor staff retention?

While every organisation is different, some of the usual culprits for high turnover are:

• Lack of career development opportunities
• Toxic working environments
• Poor manager/employee relationships
• Lack of learning and development opportunities
• Poor work-life balance
• Lack of recognition and celebration of achievements

Why is it important that you improve staff retention rates?

• High staff turnover can negatively impact business costs. In fact, the cost of replacing an employee is equivalent to 33% of an employee’s annual salary.
• New starters don’t typically begin their employment with the necessary skills and knowledge required to perform at the desired level. This can significantly impact the ROI of employees.
• High staff turnover can negatively impact company culture.
• Companies may experience drops in productivity levels throughout the process of replacing an employee.

Most business leaders will do everything they can to avoid a high staff turnover but it’s not always easy. To effectively improve staff retention, you’ll need the right tactics and a powerful LMS.

With this in mind, let’s explore how to improve staff retention with help from an LMS:

Outline career development opportunities right from the start

21% of employees cite inadequate career development as their reason for quitting. Sure, you may be having career development chats with employees after several years of service when they’re perhaps due a promotion, but this isn’t enough to guarantee company loyalty. To prevent those 21% of employees from quitting, you need to outline clear career development opportunities right from the start of their employment.

Chat with employees to find out what their career plans are within the company. With this information, managers can outline the competencies and skills they will need to achieve their goals. Using an LMS, employees can be enrolled on personalised upskilling programmes that target the skills required for career advancement. Your employees need to know which opportunities can help them achieve their long-term goals and understand what skills they need to build. An LMS, particularly one that is tied to a performance management system will enable employees to explore multiple development paths, choose an aspirational future that’s right for them and the business, and identify those opportunities that will help them build the skills they need to get there.

By clearly outlining a career development path, there’s an increased likelihood that employees will remain with a company willing to invest in their professional development right from day one.

Create motivators with LMS tools

Looking for another way to motivate employees and boost company loyalty by outlining career development opportunities? Take advantage of badges and certifications in your LMS.

Badges and certifications serve as a motivator and a clear marker for learner progression. By identifying the key courses and training modules that will support development, employees will know which badges and certifications they need to acquire. This functionality can serve as a driving force that motivates employees to embark on development opportunities and stay with the company.

Feedback and recognition

When carried out effectively, feedback practices can significantly improve staff retention by addressing a number of the common causes of high turnover outlined earlier in the blog. By encouraging regular feedback from employees, managers have a better chance of identifying and addressing the pain points that often result in resignations.

Use LMS integrations or a powerful LXP such as Totara Engage to create tailored feedback surveys that target specific issues such as work/life balance, company culture or a lack of development opportunities. By using an e-learning platform, feedback can be gathered anonymously, and data can be collated instantly using automation technology. Employers can use this data to address any concerns before they escalate further and result in the loss of employees.

Additionally, managers can use an LMS to form their own feedback. Using reports on L&D activities, managers can celebrate employee achievements, such as strong assessment results or course completions. In doing so, employees will feel that their achievements and strengths aren’t going unnoticed and that their efforts are valued within the organisation.

Improve staff retention with a Hubken LMS

Having read through some tactics on how to improve staff retention with an LMS, perhaps you’re in need of a robust and feature-rich platform that can support your performance management and L&D functions. We’ve got the solutions for you. Get in touch today to find out more or explore our product offerings here.