Learning can reduce attrition!

Attrition analytics has been one interesting trend in companies over the last 5 years. People have created interesting frameworks and models to understand why people leave. Yet, after China India is a market where there is very high attrition across the industry, esp. IT & ITES. 

Let me provide you with a 3rd lens to this problem. I would stick my neck out and say – your people leave your organizations because of 2 primary reasons:

1. You do not invest enough on their learning & growth (both intellectual & career) – investment is not necessarily money, it could be a combination of time, effort & money.
2. As a result you do not make their work challenging & exciting enough

In summary your people leave you because they are not learning. When they start looking out, they realize they are not earning either. So the trigger to attrition while appears to be “earnings”, the true invisible trigger is lack of learning.

Here is my argument:

It’s a no brainer that organizations invest top dollars on their A Players (top 20%). This may be necessary. However, what I have noticed over years, being in HR is that 80% of the L&D budgets are invested on 20% of the people. This is an unwise move. The so-called B Players are almost 70% of the company and the backbone of the company. They stand by and support the company even in challenging times. It is the A players who desert the ship first, when a storm hits the ship. These loyal B players get almost zero development dollars. Even if something comes their way, it is a-kin to the mid-day meal in Government schools. Yes, I am being a bit uncharitable here. The truth of the matter is the L&D programs provided to B players are random off the shelf programs, which create very little value. They are not personalised to the needs of these employees.

Leadership teams in organisations need to take a serious look at how they are making learning investments. If I pick an example from marketing, there was a time not so long ago Marketing leads thought there was no alternative to ATL and BTL channels to reach customers. Digital and internet were dismissed as irrelevant. Google was branded as a mere search engine, Facebook a past time of teenagers, Twitter a passing fad. Now look, where we are today. There are special digital marketing courses going around. Every marketer is being asked if he/she understands social & digital marketing.

Is HR making a proactive shift into the future or waiting to turn irrelevant.  The employees across companies are deeply social and very active on both internet & the digital medium. Unless HR departments can respond to the needs of their B Players through alternate means, 70% of people in organizations will look to other means to grow themselves, including attrite to other jobs.

Desire to learn & grow is the fundamental right of every human being. Restricting and limiting the availability of means to learn is against the very spirit of enabling human potential.

Democratising learning by adopting learning through digital & technology is the most cost effective & efficient answer available at this time. What do you think?