Verb is built around engaging employees as active participants both in the business, and in their own personal and professional development. We call this concept of investing in every part of the employee whole person development. We recently conducted a survey of 299 millennials in the U.S. (defined for our purposes as individuals aged 22-35 who are employed for wages and have completed university, postgrad or vocational school) around their opinions and expectations for professional development opportunities provided by an employer.
The results are crystal clear: Millennials have high expectations for their employers. 90% of those surveyed stated that professional development is something they expect from their employer.
But it doesn’t stop there. Based on our survey, we’ve compiled these top 5 reasons to prioritize smart, effective professional development opportunities:
- Your reputation is at stake. 87% of those surveyed agree or strongly agree that “because my employer offers professional development opportunities, I have a more positive view of my employer”.
- This is a rare opportunity to cultivate the kind of leaders your business needs. Leadership, communication and strategic thinking skills are the top skills those surveyed want to improve.
- Employees know if they’re not getting anything out of the time they put in. Only 14% indicated that their current professional development is very effective.
- It could put you over the edge in a hiring competition. Of the 90% who say they expect an employer to offer professional development, 60% consider it a high priority or essential when considering a new employer.
- There are new tools to make what you’re doing way more memorable. More than 79% of respondents say that they use an online platform for training but 41% of those don’t know the training provider name.
We understand that not every team has the bandwidth to create as robust a professional development strategy as they may want. But with these results, can you afford not to? We can help. Fill out the form below to start the conversation.
Interested in our Survey? Click here to download the detailed results.