To retain your best employees, you need to show them a vision of the future - one in which their hard work pays off.
If an ambitious employee can't see how they'll grow and advance within your organisation, they'll be tempted to look for opportunities elsewhere.
Career development is critical for employee retention. It's the lure that can help you keep your best workers, because they know that their efforts will eventually be rewarded.
But exactly how do you use career development opportunities to reduce employee turnover?
Read on to find out.
Why employee retention matters in New Zealand in 2025
Right now one in three NZ workers is thinking about quitting their job.
If they do quit, the business cost of hiring a new employee can be huge - an average of $23,860 according to a 2022 study that took recruitment expenses, onboarding and training, and the loss of knowledge and productivity into account.
What's more, the best workers enhance your business in a wealth of less tangible ways. They can be a rising tide that lifts all boats, helping average workers to perform better than they naturally would. They create a positive work environment and boost employee morale. They take initiative, identifying and capitalising on opportunities that may have otherwise been missed.
"Employees are your most important asset" is a business cliche for a reason. The best are hard to find and tricky and expensive to replace, so you should work to ensure you don't have to.
How career development boosts staff retention in New Zealand
Investing time and effort into creating career development opportunities can foster employee loyalty, reduce turnover and improve workplace morale.
When an employee can see a clear and enticing future with their employer, they're less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Building a career within a company makes a team member feel more deeply connected to the organisation. The office becomes a home, the team becomes a family. This leads to the worker feeling more invested in the future of the company, and more driven to ensure that future is a good one.
According to PwC, almost half of all employees say that having opportunities to learn new skills is a key consideration when they're deciding whether to stay with their employer or leave for another job.
As a result, companies with strong career development programs have been shown to reduce employee attrition by 50% compared to those that lack structured growth paths.
Practical professional development ideas for New Zealand teams
Now that we know the importance of ongoing professional development in New Zealand for employees, how exactly do you offer it?
The following employee retention strategies are a great place to start for any employer looking to reduce staff turnover and create a more skilled, engaged, productive and content workforce.
Investing in training
Paying for or subsidising training for your staff shows them that you're committed to helping them grow professionally, and that you're in it for the long haul.
If a junior staff member mentions an interest in management, for example, you can demonstrate how much you value them, and hint at long-term career opportunities, by paying for them to complete a leadership course. Ultimately this investment can deliver significant returns by creating a more skilled and effective employee.
Establish a fund for career development investments, and clearly outline what types of training programmes you'll cover, and how much you'll contribute.
Capitalising on government-funded training
Good news: you don't necessarily have to fund employee training yourself. There are a number government-funded programmes designed to help businesses upskill employees affordably, including:
Offering mentorship
Actively mentoring team members is another proven way to improve your employee retention rate. Many employees feel like simple cogs in the corporate machine. Mentorship from senior workers demonstrates to an employee that they're so much more than just a number.
Mentorship presents leaders with an opportunity to mould junior workers however they desire, which can ultimately create a more effective worker, and can help you to precisely fill talent and skill gaps.
Identify leaders who would be willing to offer up an hour or two per week, then pair these mentors with ambitious junior employees.
Building a strong workplace culture
Training and mentorship programs also promote an inclusive company culture, in which traditional barriers between leaders and workers are broken down.
You can further enhance this culture, and entice your best workers to stay, by making leaders as accessible as possible. Work to flatten your corporate structure, such as by establishing an open office plan. Hold regular events that allow team members to meet and mingle.
It's important to recognise and prioritise the human elements of work, as the health and wellbeing of your team is a critical factor in employee retention. Since the pandemic, New Zealand workers have developed a new appreciation for work-life balance, so be sure to offer work perks and flexible working arrangements wherever it makes sense.
Measuring the impact of career development on retention in New Zealand
Measuring employee retention success in New Zealand can be surprisingly simple, although gathering truly valuable insights can demand a little more effort.
You can gain a basic idea of your progress by tracking two key measures:
Turnover rate: The percentage of employees that leave over a given period.
Average tenure: How long staff members tend to stay with your organisation.
Benchmark your stats against NZ-specific data from sources like Stats NZ and HRNZ. If your turnover rate goes down and your average tenure goes up over time, this can be an indication that your career development efforts are having a positive impact on employee retention. But properly isolating those potential impacts requires a bit more work.
Use engagement surveys and performance reviews to understand how your team feels about the career development opportunities you're offering.
Exit interviews can be an even more valuable source of insights, as you can ask the departing worker whether career growth was a factor in their decision to leave, and whether your company could've done more in that area to entice them to stay.
Retain your best workers with 1Team
Career development opportunities are a key tool in the arsenal of any NZ business eager to retain its best and brightest employees. But it's far from the only one.
While you should certainly grant your team the chance to grow, you should also recognise and reward their efforts during that growth. And one simple way to do just that is by establishing an employee perks program.
At 1Team we specialise in helping New Zealand businesses grant high performing team members access to a range of perks, such as savings from New Zealand's leading retailers (Torpedo7, Dulux, Pita Pit, Hirepool, Repco, Warehouse Stationery), all delivered through an app with your branding.
In the process we give your best workers yet another compelling reason to stay.
If you're ready to minimise employee churn, and implement proven strategies to retain top talent, get started with 1Team today.
