Employee development is more than just employee training and annual evaluations, but also accentuating the strengths of employees and challenging them to push themselves out of their comfort zone in order to improve on certain skill sets.
How does the development of an employee increase the growth of a business?
A. Situational Management
If an employee is challenged multiple times through difficult projects or has been given tasks outside of their comfort zone, it is highly likely that they will be able to handle difficult hurdles that require exceptional patience and effort.
B. Employee Retainment
Studies have shown that the top reason why employees leave their company is due to the lack of career growth opportunities. Hence, emphasising on training programs will not only encourage the career growth of an employee but earn the trust and loyalty of employees by showing them that you care for their developmental growth as a professional practitioner in the industry.
C. Performance Improvement
When employers push the boundaries of employees to mould and shape them into better professionals, the strengths of employees are naturally enhanced, while the weaknesses are improved. Thus, this will result in better performances from employees during work hours. Better performances, better results in clientele projects, increases the business growth of a company.
What should we do to ensure that employees are professionally growing within a company?
#1 Allow Internal Collaboration
As important as external collaborations with clients, internal collaborations between departments are crucial to employees too. Through internal collabs, different departments can come together and exchange team cultures and relationships between employees are also enhanced. But, as employers, you need the right structures and working systems to ensure proper communication and to encourage empathy across the board.
#2 Ensuring Personal Development
Understand that employees are people too and taking care of their mental and physical well being is important to build trust and loyalty. Simply asking, ‘how do you feel about work lately?’ will be able to show the employees that they are heard and cared for. Organize annual or monthly office dinners or lunches just to catch up on the team’s personal growth progress and provide opportunities to let employees take breaks in between work hours to ensure maximum productivity. Sign the team up for team training or seminars to encourage personal development on soft skills sets too.
#3 Practice Being Open & Transparent
Always remember communication goes two ways. As an employer, you can voice out opinions and provide constructive criticisms for situations and projects that can be improved. And employees should also have the right to voice out concerns regarding the management to ensure growth in both parties. Open and barrier-free environments are more enjoyable and allow employees to practice creative and innovative input into their work.