It’s not uncommon for an employee to feel replaceable, but the reality is more complicated. Employee turnover is a huge cost to U.S. companies alone, especially long time workers who have acquired institutional knowledge and skills. A conservative estimate from 2019 indicates that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from “one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.” The high attrition rate costs businesses a trillion dollars.

At a recent From Day One virtual event, several leaders discussed the role of HR in retaining employees, creating an environment that cultivates learning, growth, and talent, and how to bridge the generation gap amongst the workforce.

Cultivating an Engaged and Loyal Workforce

Opening the discussion, moderator Lydia Dishman, senior editor for growth at Fast Company, highlighted a LinkedIn statistic stating that “companies that develop their people and give them opportunities for internal mobility retain them for an average of 5.4 years, as opposed to the average of 2.9 at other organizations.” Leaders are tasked with figuring out how to keep employees longer.

“It’s important to figure out what already exists so that you can fill the gaps of what you need,” Dishman said.

Gary Blinth, head of executive search at Humana invoked public speaker and writer Stephen Covey’s famous mantra to “begin with the end in mind.” At Humana, they use platforms to help their sales associates inventory skills, something long-time employees stop doing after a while. Having this data, they use technology to better assess where those skills can be deployed across the company.

Building on the process of inventorying and deploying skills, Aimée Meher-Homji, VP of global talent acquisition at Nielsen, said they look at skills across time. “So what we’re looking at are these categories: emerging skills, machine learning, and AI.” They’re looking at the skills of the future and also those that might be expiring, she says.

Nicole Underwood, VP of the human resources business partner and operation stream at Getty Images said she tells her employees to always keep their resume up-to-date. “Because you never know. Right? And you should be tracking and knowing and understanding how you’re evolving in your career.” Getty Images also focused on identifying “critical skills,” and investing in mentoring that teaches employees “hot skills,” or skills in high demand.

Assuming an employee has these hot skills, and has identified them, Dishman turned to Kristy McCann Flynn, co-founder and CEO of SkillCycle to elaborate on how to use inventory to show ROI on things like L&D and reskilling.

“I think that’s the biggest issue with a lot of systems that are out there...We run engagement surveys, and then nothing. They’re not connected to the goals, not connected to the roles, and not connected to feedback. They’re not connected to the company’s overall overarching organizational components,” McCann said.

McCann says that most of the workforce doesn’t receive the training and coaching it needs. “Coaching systems, mentoring systems, learning experience platforms, content systems – you name it – the data is not connected to the development. [When] the data is not connected to the development, it dies. [Providing] learning that’s connected to their goals and their roles, and the feedback that they’ve received, drives the ‘what’s in it for me factor,’” McCann added.

Underwood took a broader perspective, saying they don’t just hire for a role, they look at how new talent will fit into the whole organization. “Do they bring a skill set that we could then apply more broadly in the organization? Could they potentially shift over and work in another part? Could they provide insight into another area?”

“We have created a program called Next, which is very much focused on those very top talent people. We bring them together cross functionally, [and] they’re asked to solve a business problem that they investigate, put together a plan, and then fully present on how to solve that business problem,” Underwood said.

Communicating What’s Available Across Departments

“One of the things we’ve implemented here at Nielsen is having a global posting policy, where every single role is posted,” Meher-Homji said. “And it’s not just enough to get them to apply or to make sure that they can see the posting necessarily, but supporting them along the way as well.”

Nielsen’s strategy underlies another problem, though, that of applying for positions and hearing nothing back.

Blinth highlighted how this leads to discouragement and burnout. “What I’ve noticed is that some employees, if they apply to roles consistently and they do not make any traction in the interview process, then they’re going to be discouraged. And at some point in time, the question is going to be, why should I continue to apply? Right?” To mitigate this void loss, they reach out to HR and ask them directly if there are suitable candidates for open leadership roles within their part of the organization.

Responding to Blinth’s comments, Meher-Homji added, “The other thing that’s often a mess is sometimes we don’t look at our ERGs or BRGs. They are a rich resource for referrals. They’re willing to spread the word internally or externally. It’s important that you tap into those ERGs and BRGs.”

Underwood says they consult with their ERGs for a lot because they are highly involved across multiple avenues of our organization. “In fact, we’ve developed a mentoring program for our employees who identify with a specific ERG group, where they’re able to connect with a senior leader. So we’re investing in the talent in our ERGs.”

Ageism Ignores the Knowledge Older Workers Can Provide

Before ending the discussion, Dishman touched on the fact that Gen X and younger baby boomers now fill many senior leadership roles, and with them comes decades of institutional knowledge. She asked how HR can entice older employees to stay and keep learning.

Meher-Homji sees Gen X and younger baby boomers as an untapped resource. She’d love to see companies hiring back retirees because of what they can offer. “I know some companies are looking at hiring back retirees and then pairing them with incoming incoming talent and early talent.”

Blinth told the anecdote of Humana’s CEO announcing that at the beginning of the year, he was going back to school to learn AI. “When I saw him do that, I thought, if he could do it, with everything else going on, why can’t I? And I challenged my team to do that also. The more our  well-tenured employees have a sense of belonging, then they’re going to be more apt to give back and foster.”

That aspect of belonging, Dishman concluded, is “a through line for pretty much every initiative out there.”

Matt Koehler is a freelance journalist and licensed real estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in Greater Greater Washington, The Washington Post, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.