Why coaching should be part of your employee retention strategy in 2023

While the new year represents a fresh start for many, for HR leaders, the early weeks of 2023 may also come with the fear of a raft of resignations driven by workers craving change or new pastures. Low unemployment and the threat of ongoing skills shortages remain serious concerns.

Of course, these concerns aren’t new. In 2021, one in 10 Australian workers changed their jobs, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while 56 per cent of Australian workers said in November last year “they had taken steps to change their current employment”.

Now is the time to get ahead of any resignations and put the right structure in place to ensure your workplace holds onto a competitive edge, no matter what the employment market has in store. One important part of that process is looking at your training and development, including where coaching sits in your wider retention strategy.

After the upheaval of the pandemic and the uncertainty it wrought, the focus for many HR professionals has been firmly on keeping employees productive and happy while working remotely or during office closures. Now, it’s time to look ahead and consider other ways to keep workplaces engaged and put your company in front of the competition for top talent, as we negotiate the changing future of work.

Generous leave policies, flexible working set-ups, increased superannuation and paid parental leave schemes are all high on the usual list of perks a job may offer, but a gap has developed for learning and development (L&D), particularly where Millennial and Gen Z workers are concerned.

The recent Upskilling Study from research firm Workplace Intelligence and Amazon shows “74 per cent of Millennial and Gen Z employees are likely to quit within the next year due to a lack of skills development opportunities”. These workers are concerned with more than getting a salary increase or more recognition from their peers – they’re looking for better work-life balance and a sense of purpose from their career growth.

It’s not just Millennials and Gen Z that are craving L&D. Data from Microsoft shows “76 per cent of employees say they’d stay at their company longer if they could benefit more from learning and development support”.

While sending every employee on external training courses and conferences may not be realistic, digital coaching offers an efficient, effective and measurable option. Coaching is no longer just for the C-suite; it’s come a long way since the executive coaching of the 80s and 90s. The introduction of technology has democratised the process, making it easier and more accessible than ever before for a rapidly changing, multi-generational workforce. Today’s digital-coaching solutions allow employees to work toward individually set goals, equipping organisations with measurable results that impact their key performance indicators (KPIs) and ultimately their bottom line.

Coaching isn’t just a valuable tool to support employee retention. It can also be used to achieve your organisation’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals, identifying top talent and nurturing it. For young professionals, coaching gives them a neutral sounding board, allowing them to work through any issues or concerns without pressure and ultimately equipping them with the ability to develop the skills they need to become the leaders of tomorrow.

As HR professionals, we do everything we can to keep our workforce engaged, motivated and inspired, but with uncertainty all around us, coaching can provide the additional support your business needs to retain your workforce in 2023.

Mark Johnson is the APAC solutions lead at EZRA.