Mice apparently have something to teach us about employee retention.

Researchers who study “environmental enrichment” give laboratory mice something their standard cages often lack: variety. The animals may have running wheels, toys, tunnels, climbing opportunities, and other objects to explore. Researchers regularly change the objects or their arrangement, creating a more stimulating environment.

The results are intriguing. Enriched mice—particularly older mice—have demonstrated improvements in spatial learning and memory compared with mice living in standard, unchanging environments. Other research has found that enriched environments can improve physical health and, in some circumstances, even extend lifespan. The lesson isn’t that giving a mouse a new maze will make it live twice as long. It is that an environment that provides opportunities for movement, exploration, and mental challenge can produce measurable benefits.

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What if HR applied the same principle to employees?

Not every employee needs a promotion. Sometimes they simply need a new maze.

Give an employee the opportunity to work on a project outside their normal responsibilities. Let an accountant spend some time with the finance team on a capital project. Allow a parks employee to help with a community event. Create management-rotation programs. Offer temporary assignments in another department. Encourage cross-training, job shadowing, mentoring, special projects, and short-term “stretch” assignments.

The federal government has long recognized the value of these kinds of developmental experiences. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management describes rotational and developmental assignments as ways to broaden employees’ knowledge, skills, and experience. Its career-development guidance also recommends incorporating rotations, shadowing, on-the-job training, and conferences into individual development plans.

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There is a retention argument here, too. Research has found that challenging assignments are associated with lower turnover intentions and actual voluntary turnover, in part because employees learn on the job. LinkedIn data likewise shows that employees who make internal moves are more likely to remain with their organization.

HR can sell the idea to managers as more than an employee perk. It’s workforce development without necessarily creating a new position. Employees acquire new skills, departments gain people with broader organizational knowledge, and managers get a chance to identify potential future leaders. According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, employers have plenty of room to grow; only 15% of employees say their organization encouraged them to move to a new role. That gap matters: A 2024 Workplace Learning Report found organizations with strong learning cultures had 57% higher retention rates and 23% more internal mobility than organizations with weaker learning cultures.

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How do you sell it to employees?

Try this: You don’t know what else you might be good at—or what you might enjoy—until you try it.

An employee who has spent five years doing the same job may think the only way to find something new is to leave. Give that employee a different project, a different department or a different challenge, and they may discover a new career path without ever leaving the organization.

The mouse researchers call it environmental enrichment.

HR might call it giving people a reason to stay curious.

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Do you have a workforce development program that is effective in increasing employee retention rates? We’d love to hear about it—reach out anytime to emily.lowe@mynpsj.com.