How to get today's employees to stay and engage? Develop their careers

SALT LAKE CITY, June 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- New national survey results from Instructure, conducted by The Harris Poll, show a significant disconnect between how companies think they're doing when it comes to developing their workforce and the reality of employee needs. In fact, 70% of US employees say they're at least somewhat likely to leave their current company and accept an offer with a new company that's known for investing in employee learning and development, according to the study.

The research findings point to a specific need for more effective employee development in workplaces across all industries as employers struggle to retain top talent and unlock the potential of each employee. Instructure launched its new Bridge Employee Development Platform today to help employers address this need. The expanded platform includes Career for career pathing and Engage for employee voice, in addition to the existing capabilities around Learn, Perform and Practice.

"Today's workforce has options, and people are clear about the fact that they want to work for companies that will invest in their careers," said Mitch Benson, SVP of product at Instructure. "In addition to today's announced research findings, our own research with more than 600 in-depth interviews across 200 roles shows a need for a more employee-centric solution. With Bridge, companies find a true strategic solution to increase employee growth, engagement and performance."

The national survey of 310 employers and 1,433 full-time employees revealed differing opinions between the two groups.

Employer vs. Employee Perspective:

• Meeting Needs?: Employees give an F to their employers for employee development. While 98% of employers say they offer career development tools, only 26% of employees rate their employers' tools as delivering development very well.
• Jumping Ship: While 69% of employers feel career growth is extremely important to retention, a third of employees who have left a job (34%) have done so because they craved more career development opportunities, making it a leading reason why people leave jobs—second only to compensation (46%).
• People Feel Alone on Their Career Journeys: Three in four people (77%) reported that they feel like they're on their own to determine their career development.
• Many Tools, No Solutions: Today's talent management tools are not making the cut, creating an opportunity for a new category of employee development tools. Even though 98% of employers say they offer career development tools already, when asked what they want to invest in, career development tools was the top choice of employers (27%)—nearly twice as likely to be chosen as any other option. Even with an abundance of tools, employers recognize that something is missing as they struggle with retention rates.

"We are now in a stage where most companies have too much technology, and not enough time," said Josh Bersin, global industry analyst. "A major part of today's employee experience is simplifying the technology experience and designing HR programs that happen 'in the flow of work.' With its new Bridge offering, Instructure has been able to put employee development at the center of the employee experience. I believe Bridge is the type of platform people will use daily, from tracking performance, to facilitating one-on-ones, to mapping career progression and enabling skills growth."

The Bridge Employee Development Platform is unique, as it's an employee-centric solution that provides day-to-day value to both employees and managers as they align on priorities, track goals and map out development. It helps companies identify and deliver all the learning and experiences critical for employee growth and development.

• For the employee: Bridge supports productive onboarding, regular performance feedback and coaching and setting long-term career vision and plans.
• For the manager: Bridge helps managers understand their employees' career drivers, provides a central place to track 1:1s, goals and tasks and enables regular coaching conversations.
• For the employer: Bridge helps increase employee retention, fulfillment and alignment to business performance.

Bridge Career is an employee-centric career development tool that helps individuals align their role with their long-term career vision. It supports skill development and increased fulfillment and provides the clarity needed for personal and professional growth. 

Bridge Engage is a pulse survey solution that gives employees a voice in building company culture and providing feedback. Engage guides leaders at all levels of the business to have the right conversations and take the right actions to improve culture and drive engagement.

During the last few months, select beta customers have had the chance to implement the new Bridge Employee Development Platform.

"Continuous dialogue between a manager and employee is the best method to ensure goal alignment, learning, performance feedback and recognition," said Robert Buckley, SVP of HR at RainFocus. "We make this easy by using the Bridge Employee Development Platform. It sets a precedent for superior design and usability and enables our people leaders to focus on individualized feedback, learning and career growth."

SURVEY METHODOLOGY
The HR Decision Maker (Employer) and Employee surveys were conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Instructure. Both were administered online to respondents in the United States. In the survey of HR decision makers (referred to as "employers"), respondents were screened on their employment status (only full-time employed), job title (director-level and above), company size (at least five employees) and involvement in HR decision making (either partial or primary decision maker in "employee training and development programs"). The 310 complete surveys were collected from April 26–May 3, 2019. The sample was weighted based on the size of the employer (number of employees).

In the employee survey, respondents were screened on their employment status (only full-time employed) and the size of their employer (at least five employees). A total of 1,433 interviews were conducted and completed from April 26–May 6, 2019. The sample was weighted on education, age, gender, race, region, income and size of the employer to align with targets among employed Americans.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure (NYSE: INST) helps people grow from the first day of school to the last day of work. More than 30 million people use the Canvas Learning Management Platform for schools and the Bridge Employee Development Platform for businesses. More information at www.instructure.com.

CONTACT:
Becky Frost
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
Instructure
801-869-5017
[email protected]

SOURCE Instructure; Bridge

Related Links

http://www.instructure.com

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