Employee development has long-term benefits, including attracting great employees, keeping them engaged as well as strengthening their abilities. However, in order for it to be so, the investment into employee development must be done in the right way. People need to improve themselves professionally in order to grow and thus feel fulfilled at work, which leads to them being productive and doing their job in the best way they can. Some statistics report that people decide to quit their job for numerous reasons, some of them because they are dissatisfied with pay, some as there are not enough opportunities for advancing as well as due to deficiency of learning methods and materials. So, what can you as a prospective employer do? Well, there are a few things. Firstly, you should make learning accessible and enable personal development. You should try to promote a feedback culture and train the managers. Moreover, you should give your employees opportunities to enhance both their technical and soft skills. Take a look at some useful ways to improve employee development in your organization.
1. Make learning accessible
In order for learning to be the most effective, it needs to be accessible as well as continuous. Your employees should always feel that they have easy and quick access to whatever skill they want to master or perfect. Studies have shown that long, one-time, person-to-person workshops are not as effective as continual, short and constant workshops. So, instead of investing in these pricy one-time workshops, whose outcomes are a bit questionable as employees struggle to retain a large amount of information and to implement them in their job, you should consider some other way. The best way to make this happen is to give employees a chance to learn and advance at their own pace and time on a regular basis. For this to be possible, there must be someplace for learning in the regular workflow.
2. Enable personal development
Besides having the opportunities to perfect their technical skills, you should also make room for some other useful skills as well. Only in this way will you get a fully formed and satisfied employee. Employees at your company are not robots, they are people, and they need to develop both professionally and personally for the most optimal outcomes. By doing so, you give your employees a chance to develop as a whole and thus, bring their whole selves to work. Besides being technically knowledgeable and skillful, you can also benefit from them being friendly, communicative and emotionally intelligent. Give your employees access to some quality rto materials and you’ll be on a good way towards obtaining even better employees.
3. Promote feedback culture
When you learn something new, you need to try to implement it and use it on your job. However, that’s sometimes easier said than done. Feedback plays a key role at this point. It is also a plausible way for learning and growing. To enhance employee development, you should strive towards creating a positive atmosphere regarding both giving and receiving feedback. This is sometimes tough as people tend to react in different ways to feedback. There are some effective ways to do it, though. For starters, you can create a video that shows what good feedback looks like. Then, make sure that feedback sessions are scheduled in advance, in that way employees can prepare – the results are usually better. And always keep in mind that feedback should be two-way.
4. Train the managers
Managers are an important aspect of every company and as such, they have a huge impact on employees’ engagement. There is no effective investment into employee development without investment into the development of the managerial level. They go together. A good manager, besides being good at his or her job, needs to have good people skills in order to create a noteworthy team and lead them. You should especially pay attention to first-time managers and make sure to provide them with proper training. There’s no good team without an even better manager.
5. Develop both technical and soft skills
As already mentioned, both technical and soft skills development is necessary for creating a happy and productive employee. As far as technical skills are concerned, regardless of the level your employees are at, there is always room for improvement. Technical or hard skills include skills such as content writing, data analysis, coding and so on. This kind of training is fundamental, as it’s the base for getting a certain job. Your employees should be up to date with the latest happenings in the field, with ongoing learning. On the other hand, it’s not enough to just possess excellent technical skills. Soft skills include skills such as time management, organization and effective communication, among others. These skills enable employees to fit in well with the whole collective.
Investing in the right employee development is never a mistake, in fact, you can look at it as an investment into your better future.