A mere 31% of business leaders discuss career development with their employees.This is the statistic for Australia. The scenario is even worse in UAE and the Gulf, though no official statistics are available.
However, it is common knowledge that with the exception of a few multinational and very large local companies, training and career development programs are virtually non-existent in large and medium companies.
What are the pitfalls of this approach?
- Talent retention will be a challenge.
- Companies cannot implement leadership succession plans, thereby creating a vacuum in the management structure.
- Transitions will not be smooth.
- Employees perceive limited growth opportunities in their organization leading to high manpower turnover, especially in key positions.
A recent study also revealed that the average monthly salary in the UAE is around AED 10,100 and the average length of time of holding a job in the UAE is a mere 4.7 years.
Using these figures, this has equated to a $2.7 billion cost to business every year in lost staff (Source: Time out Dubai.com – Zed Ayesh, managing director, Flagship Consultancy).
Survey after survey reveals a significant disconnect between employers and employees in this issue.
Therefore, employee recruitment and retention in the Middle East is a huge challenge for companies in all sectors, considering the fact that 90 per cent of the workforce in UAE are expats.
The consequences of high manpower turnover are:
- Recurrence of high costs in gratuity, affecting both the bottom line and cash flow.
- Recruitment and visa costs for replacement of staff, including outsourced agency fees.
- Loss of productivity during the interrim.
- Loss of knowledge repository of ex-employees.
By failing to address the basic problem of career development, employers are at risk of losing their best talent. Currently, trained and experienced employees have greater opportunities elsewhere if they are professionally qualified and are backed with pre-requisite training in the field of their expertise/domain.
Lack of career development or absence of progression in the company leads to a lack of motivation, resulting in decreased productivity and substandard performance. No wonder it fosters dissatisfaction amongst today’s personnel.
If business leaders are looking to improve retention, employee commitment and employee’s career development, they need to focus on the following:
- Cultivate leadership.
- Understand the needs of employees, just like they attempt to understand their customers.
- Discuss career development with employees.
- Put in place robust training and career management programs.
Companies need to develop functional enterprise-wide career models in order to help address changes in business demand and poor job fit, such as career pathways and career development outputs. Managers should be equipped as mentors in order to have effective career conversations with employees and help facilitate career plans.
It is very important that the kind of training an employee undergoes is well targeted. Ill-conceived training does not ensure any improvement in the skill set of an employee. The relevance of a particular training for a particular job fit assumes greater significance. Substandard training results in substandard work quality.
Training programs with relevant content and excellence allow employees to determine their career growth and the success of the training they receive evolves the expertise within the company. Such programs focus on improving skills sets such as communication, abilities and interpersonal skills which are the cornerstones of effective training models and build strong teams in the company.
Eventually, the basis of strategic career development is to align the employers’ value proposition with the expectations of their employees.
