Faced with an economy that remains challenging, some organizations are tempted to shift their focus away from training and career-development activities. There is strong evidence that doing so would be a big mistake. Research based on employee-opinion surveys in hundreds of organizations across multiple industries confirms that opportunities for personal development and growth are among the most important factors influencing employee loyalty and productivity.

There proves to be an exceptionally strong connection between perceptions of being able to advance in one’s company and being motivated – i.e. engaged. Employees today recognize they are responsible for their own careers, and if their employer won’t give them the opportunity to learn and develop in their job, they won’t stay. To ignore development of their skills and abilities is to risk a person’s future employability. Many sharp employees won’t tolerate working in a place that takes a casual approach to employees’ development and growth.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the companies that support the development of the very skills that make their employees most attractive to competing employers are the companies least likely to lose their best employees.

But this issue has a farther reach. In a survey of over 2.6 million employees, three-quarters of them rated "succession planning" as a critical need in their company. This is an incredibly insightful finding, as a significant number of company leaders will be retirement eligible in the next 5-10 years...

This brings up a two-fold concern for the more talented and forward thinking employees. They want the training that will provide them the skills to be ready for those job openings when they occur. As important, they recognize that their companies need to provide this training to their potential future leaders in order to maintain cutting-edge technologies and competitiveness going forward.

Those companies that fail in planning for these essential variables likely will be at a strong disadvantage in their ability to retain their best mid-level management. With training budgets constrained and time-pressured managers struggling to devote time to coaching and developing their teams, many companies are coming face-to-face with these unpleasant realities right now!

In percentage terms very few organizations of any size are giving attention to this challenge. History would suggest we will witness a significant drop in the quality of business leadership in the next decade.

What can and should management do to create a stronger culture for development? Not surprisingly, surveys show that HR managers need to attend to far more than just "career tracks" to instill confidence in their employees that their organization is committed to helping them learn, grow and advance.

Company leaders need to develop coherent strategies for succeeding in the current business environment, and make certain comprehensive and ongoing training programs of the highest quality are in place and readily available to all employees. Further companies must strongly encourage employees to take advantage of these training programs AND make sure employees can put their new knowledge to work in their day-to-day work activities.

As opportunities for advancement are often limited, the number of employees who want to be promoted at any point in time will generally exceed the number of openings. There is significant potential for wide-spread "sour grapes". Leaders must be certain that mentors of promotable employees be sensitive and supportive in these situations. They must also make sure that there is an atmosphere of fairness and equity as available positions are filled.

Clear standards for promotions must be widely communicated and in place, especially to assure all in the organization that the very best candidates are getting those jobs.

In this regard, strengthening supervisory relationships, increasing awareness of cross-organizational opportunities and managing employee expectations will further foster positive impressions of development opportunities available to employees.

Research suggests that positive perceptions of opportunities of growth and advancement are among the strongest predictors of employee engagement. An employer ignoring these findings does so at its peril.

This article was based in part on a paper written in HR Magazine by Mark Royal and Rebecca Masson of the Hay Group Insight

Courtesy of Through Eagles Eyes, Inc.