5 Ways To Encourage Employee Development In the Workplace

Employee development is when a business empowers its employees to advance their skills and knowledge. This leads to more opportunities for the workers and a more skilled workforce for the business. Employee development benefits the organization and the employees themselves. Businesses will see improved productivity, better quality work and less employee turnover. Employees will enjoy their jobs more, feel empowered to contribute to the business and progress in their careers.

When you are building an employee development strategy for your business, it’s essential to ensure each individual has the resources and support they need to advance. This could mean providing education, creating training programs or encouraging a collaborative work environment. Overall, employee development is a net benefit to everyone involved. In this blog, we’ll give you some tips for an employee development strategy and how you can help your employees reach their full potential.

Why Is It Important?

Employee development is more than just important — it’s essential. People have more options than ever when it comes to their place of work. If they’re not getting opportunities at their current place of employment, they’re sure to start looking elsewhere. When you encourage employees to develop their skills, you reduce the likelihood that they’ll leave. Also, you’ll get workers with more well-rounded skill sets. This will lead to improved morale and improved productivity.

Employee development also keeps employees highly engaged. When employees feel like their business is supporting them and investing in their success, they will be more invested in their company’s success. It also improves their innovation ability, providing more opportunities for your business to thrive.

If you want to retain your best talent, you must ensure you’re giving them the opportunities they want. Helping them gain new skills and expanding their knowledge is essential if you want them to stay on.

What Are the Benefits?

Employee development provides numerous benefits to both the employer and the employee. As mentioned, employers get more skilled workers, increased productivity, better morale, a more engaged workforce and less employee turnover. Employees get the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to thrive in their roles and advance their careers.

Employee development provides both tangible and intangible benefits. A more skilled workforce will be better at communication and collaboration. This leads to stronger teams and departments, along with creating an environment where employees feel happy and comfortable. 

In short, employee development is no longer optional for businesses that want to achieve true success and growth. Your employees are the reason your business can run, so they need to be supported. Employee turnover is costly, and losing top talent can be detrimental to a business. Make sure your employees want to work for your company by giving them the resources they need to succeed.

5 Ways To Improve Employee Development

Now we’re familiar with employee development and why it matters. But where do you start? If you want to implement an employee development strategy, there are some best practices you can follow to ensure success. Here are five ways to improve employee development:

Involve Your Team Members in Goal Setting

Employee development means getting your employees involved as much as possible. A key component of this is goal setting. Management should talk to each employee about their individual goals and how they’d like to grow in the company. Not only should you be talking to employees about their goals, but you should help them make actionable plans to reach those goals. Set benchmarks and timelines to help employees have visibility into their progress and have the motivation to reach that next goal.

Milestones should be achievable and measurable so employees don’t lose motivation or morale. It’s important to regularly check in to make sure their goals are still on track or if they have new goals in mind. Goal setting is one of your most powerful tools for keeping employees engaged, so make sure it’s incorporated into your employee development strategy.

Hold Regular One-on-one Meetings

Make sure you schedule regular one-on-one meetings with employees. These meetings create opportunities for you to give feedback to team members. It also allows them to provide feedback on the company, their department and their role in the company. These one-on-one meetings should be productive, and something employees look forward to. Identify areas of improvement, celebrate successes and talk about their progress. Just like goal-setting, one-on-one meetings keep employees engaged. It shows that you have a vested interest in their development and their satisfaction with the company. Plus, their feedback could help you identify areas where the company could improve as a whole.

Set Up Cross-departmental Training

Cross-departmental training is another great employee development tool. Cross-departmental training will not only broaden the skill sets of each employee but also encourages easier collaboration between departments. Often, departments can feel segmented, and communication may be lacking. When you set up cross-departmental training, employees will get to know each other and feel more comfortable collaborating and communicating between departments.

Cross-departmental training can be implemented in several ways. You could set up specific times when departments come together and learn how the other departments operate. You can also set up training modules and provide resources that employees can view at their leisure. Setting up mentorship programs or shadowing days are also effective ways for employees to share knowledge. 

When employees understand how other departments work along with the roles and responsibilities of these departments, there will be less confusion and miscommunication in the company overall. This leads to less frustration for employees and improved productivity. Also, cross-departmentally trained employees can help other departments pick up the slack when things get hectic. It also broadens the opportunities for these employees if they decide they want to switch departments.

Offer Reimbursement for Extended Learning & Courses

If you really want to encourage employee development, you can offer reimbursement for extended learning and courses. Many employees may hesitate to try and expand their skills on their own but may be excited about the prospect if they know they can learn for free. This also increases employee satisfaction because they know you’re invested in their success.

There are plenty of opportunities for employees to engage in guided learning. You can reimburse employees for specialized courses, college courses, seminars, conferences or any other learning opportunity that you think would benefit them. 

By engaging in learning opportunities or attending conferences, employees can stay on top of the latest trends and skills in the industry. This benefits them as they can advance their careers, but it also means they can contribute more to the company.

Recognize Accomplishments

All employees like to be appreciated. Make sure you recognize their efforts and accomplishments. This is an essential step if you want to keep employees satisfied and motivated. Praise and recognition are important, but employees should also be rewarded in tangible ways. Raises, promotions, bonuses and other perks should be distributed to employees that achieve their goals. While employees may love their job and their company, they still want to be appropriately compensated for their efforts. By recognizing accomplishments and rewarding them accordingly, employees will feel valued and encouraged to reach greater heights.