3 ways to help young employees develop professionally

Future economic growth is dependent on developing young people to become a high-quality, talented workforce. 

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There are plenty of ways to encourage the development of young people into highly skilled employees, but one that is often overlooked is dedicated professional development for young employees.

Beyond the overall economic benefits of a talented workforce, employers have a lot to gain from providing professional development to their young employees. Among these benefits are:

  • Reduced employee turnover;
  • Innovative ideas;
  • Attracting more talented workers; and
  • Better business outcomes.

But how can you effectively implement professional development for your young employees? What efforts will lead to the best results for your employees and your business? Here are three options for young professional development that you can explore in your organization.

Connect young employees to more experienced mentors

One of the easiest ways to help young employees develop professionally is to connect them with more experience members of the organization. Having someone there to help them learn the ropes is always helpful, doesn’t require a huge investment of time or capital, and can help reduce attrition of new hires.

If you’re willing to invest a little bit more, however, you can develop a mentorship program that is more valuable to young professionals and employees that have been with your company for a long time. In 2012, a study showed that 75% of Millennial employees want a mentor in their job. Having a formal mentor relationship with a more experienced employee can help younger employees feel more confident about building their skills.

Furthermore, those more experienced employees can also learn from their mentees. Having a two-way relationship means that both employees can share their expertise with each other, which can increase both their skillsets and lead to higher engagement with the company.

Building a formal mentorship program can seem like a big undertaking but it can lead to great results for your business.

Invest in growth opportunities

Besides leveraging the expertise in your own company, giving your employees a chance to develop professionally through continuing education is another great option. Investing in professional development for young employees can take a couple of different forms including:

  • A dedicated budget for training and conferences each year;
  • Subscriptions to online education courses like Lynda.com and Skillshare; and
  • Online courses from accredited universities on Coursera.

There are also plenty of amazing local professional development options you can explore like:

Showing your employees that you care about their professional development, and giving them the opportunity to gain concrete skills as a part of their job, can not only increase employee engagement; it can also become a great recruitment tool for new employees.

Mobility within your organization

Once you’ve invested in young professional development for your employees, it’s important to make sure they have the ability to use their newly developed skills without leaving the company. Having a policy of talent mobility will ensure you don’t lose your best employees to an outside firm.

Talent mobility is more than just promoting from within. It’s about making sure employees are in the roles best suited to their talents and allowing them to move across departments, not just upwards. Whenever a new role opens up in your business, consider posting the job internally to all staff members first. Encourage them to think carefully about whether they’d be well-suited to the role.

You can always train employees for new skills. Keeping your most talented young professionals in your business will reduce turnover and increase employee satisfaction.

Helping all employees with professional development is important, but young professionals are particularly important to target with these initiatives. Since young professionals have a more fluid conception of jobs and careers, increasing their engagement will be key to retaining them as employees.

You can learn more about YP Nashville, our young professional organization that works to engage YPs in the Nashville community, at YPNashville.org.

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