05 Employee Development

 What is Employee Development ?

Employee development is an investment in your team’s growth, involving time, effort, and money. While it incurs costs, consider it a long-term gain. Choosing between firing an employee with limited skills and developing those skills may seem like a cost decision, but investing in development yields better retention, enhanced skills, and knowledge. This approach also saves the time and expenses associated with recruiting and on boarding new hires. In fields like IT, where talent is scarce, prioritizing employee development becomes a strategic move for sustained success. Ultimately, a well-organized development strategy aligns your workforce with your business standards, creating a win-win scenario for both employees and the company.

Importance of Employee Development 

Implementing a robust employee training program not only enhances professional skills but also serves as a strategic investment. By prioritizing staff development, businesses foster loyalty, reduce turnover, and capitalize on a well-trained workforce. This approach not only saves on recruitment expenses but also aligns with the notion that specialists value career growth alongside financial rewards. Ultimately, a commitment to employee training reaps long-term benefits for both individuals and the company.

Methods of Professional Development 

1.Mentoring

Mentoring, a key element in employee development plans, pairs less experienced individuals with seasoned professionals to facilitate practical learning. It occurs informally or through formal programs, fostering skill and career growth. Successful mentoring programs set clear goals, demand a minimum time commitment, ensure accountability, align with broader strategies, and contribute to long-term individual and organizational improvement.

2. Coaching 

Coaching is like having a skilled guide (often more experienced) help an individual at work. It’s not just about telling what to do but personalized advice to improve skills and advance in their career. Both the company and the person being coached need to be committed, follow a plan, and assess progress for coaching to be effective.

3. Individual development plans 

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is like a roadmap for a person’s learning and growth at work. It’s a document where you jot down what you want to learn, how you plan to do it, and what help you might need. Good IDPs use smart strategies for adult learning, hands-on experiences, and other effective methods to help you reach your goals faster.

4. Cross- training 

Cross-training involves broadening employees’ skills beyond their usual tasks, either temporarily or as a structured ongoing process. It may not yield immediate skill development, but treating it as an experiment helps assess employees’ interest in learning. For instance, a frontend developer can temporarily join the backend team to transition into a full stack role, saving the need to hire new developers. Identify required skills for a position, assess current employee skills, and use cross-training to address skill gaps.

5. The 9-box Grid

This tool helps assess employees’ current and future contributions to the business. It uses a grid to spot potential leaders and provides a visual way for managers to understand actual and potential performance. The insights from the grid can then be used to create Individual Development Plans (IDPs).

6. Job Shadowing 

Job shadowing is like a work adventure where one employee spends a day following a co-worker. The cool part? You get to see the job from a different angle, understand challenges in other departments, and if you want to switch roles, it’s like a sneak peek before you dive in. It’s like training for a new job without actually changing your title.

7. Job Enrichment 

Making a job bigger by adding more tasks can boost employee motivation, but it’s not just about quantity. To truly benefit, you also need to make the job more fulfilling and rewarding—this is called job enrichment.

Common challenges 

Implementing employee development plans can face challenges such as managers not being held accountable, a lack of talent development capabilities, misalignment between workforce and business strategy, inconsistent execution of programs, absence of analytics tools to measure effectiveness, and overlooking individualized development needs of employees.

References 

www.primetric.com. (n.d.). What is employee development? Definition and key benefits. [online] Available at: https://www.primetric.com/blog/employee-development-definition-and-key-benefits.

Shutterstock. (n.d.). Business Training Courses Concept Can Use Stock Vector (Royalty Free) 1399287401. [online] Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/business-training-courses-concept-can-use-1399287401 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2023].