Keeping your staff engaged and invested in their professional development can be difficult during tough economic times. According to a recent LinkedIn survey, more than half of U.S. workers want to quit their jobs in 2023, indicating that the “Great Resignation” isn’t slowing down just yet.
Offering robust staff training, learning and development, and upskilling opportunities—as well as maintaining a positive culture and climate—can make all the difference when it comes to engaging and retaining employees. With the right tools, youth program directors can keep staff engaged at work and inspired to continue growing in their careers.
Onboarding: Starting Off on the Right Foot
Offering a smooth and comprehensive staff onboarding experience is a great way to make your staff feel valued, motivated, and inspired from day one. Onboarding has a significant impact on staff engagement and retention. In fact, 86 percent of employers believe that new hires decide whether to stay at a company within the first 90 days.
To help your program staff get started off on the right foot, you should treat your onboarding as the foundation for all professional development opportunities. Using Arly’s ready-made staff onboarding and training guides, you can help your program staff get focused and ready to go with training on important topics such as culture and climate, policies and procedures, behavior management, teaching, and more.
Development: Helping Staff Learn and Grow
Professional development is a key component of successful youth programs that helps to attract the best staff and differentiate from other programs. When teachers and other youth program staff have the opportunity to learn and excel on the job, they’re often more engaged, fulfilled, and likely to stick around.
Arly’s professional development library is a great resource for youth program directors looking to expand learning and growth opportunities. We provide a mix of on-demand courses, webinars, and curated resources to support staff success.
Educators have the flexibility to learn at their own pace, track their learning progress, and then download certificates to celebrate their accomplishments. Many employees prefer a combination of self-paced training and team learning. If you’d like, we can even administer training in person for an added cost.
Retention: Giving Staff a Reason to Stick Around
Retaining staff is ideal not only for long-term program success, but also for valuable cost-savings during tough economic times. Hiring is an expensive, time-consuming process—especially when you’re committed to finding the best in the biz.
Staff onboarding and professional development have a very strong impact when it comes to retaining teachers and other program staff. However, your program’s culture and climate play a big part too. The more you nurture close relationships and meaningful interactions, the more likely staff are to stick with your program.
For example, providing occasional lunches, team-building events, and guidance on how staff can do their jobs—with the flexibility to add their own flare—are all effective ways to keep team members from jumping ship. Offering the ability to share a role for more time off is also an attractive perk that helps keep staff coming back.
Onboard, Train, and Retain Your Staff With Arly
Onboarding, development, and retention are critical to the success of your program. Investing in your staff’s professional development helps them build on the skills your program needs to succeed, while also keeping them invested for the long haul.
Arly makes hiring and nurturing the very best staff as easy as possible. With a software solution like Arly in your toolbox, you can kickstart professional development to help your staff grow and succeed—and your program too.
Ready to get started? Request a demo of Arly to see our platform in action.
