6.6 Employee Development
Companies take a strategic approach to identifying skills and knowledge needed for their employees. HR creates a pool of employees that meet these skills and knowledge, or have the potential to meet these skills and knowledge in the future. Employee development should be considered a natural extension of training. Like training, this process is concerned with the growth of employees. However, unlike training which occurs in a short period and is targeted at specific KSAs, employee development unfolds over a longer period of time and targets a more general set of competencies. Thus, career development focuses on programs and systems that manage and track employees’ broad progress over many years – ensuring long term personal development.
Employee Development
An employee development program is a process developed to help people manage their careers, learn new things, and take steps to improve personally and professionally. Employee development is vital for the long term viability of any organization. Most organizations will pursue employee development on at least two fronts – succession planning and employee personal development.
Succession planning identifies key positions within a company and develops action plans for certain employees to be placed in these positions. It is key to the success of organizations. An organization should always be concerned with the growth and development of its next generation of leaders. Because this development unfolds over many years, succession planning has to be a constant priority for HR managers and Senior Management. It usually takes 20 years to develop the CEO of a large organization, so one must start early and be very proactive to ensure that the pipeline of leadership talent for top positions is healthy.
Employee development helps people to manage their own careers within a company. They take steps through action planning with HR employees to learn new knowledge and skills to improve themselves. It helps with employee motivation and retention. There are few things more motivating for employees than knowing that the company that they work for is committed to their professional development. Conversely, an employer who does not focus on employee learning is going to suffer from low performance, engagement and retention. According to LinkedIn’s (2018) Workforce Learning Report, a whopping 93% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. People want to know how their goals and aspirations fit with the plans of the company that they work for.
Steps for Employment Development Plans
- Needs Analysis: A development plan begins with a training needs analysis. HR departments identify the gaps between the company’s needs and the employee’s skills. It assists the HR department in outlining developmental needs, and ensures that training addresses these needs.
- Identify skills development goals: HR departments look at short and long term training needs to ensure these skills are a priority. They build a long term road map of potential employees that meet the company’s goals. This creates a clear picture of future training needs.
- Identify training solutions: HR departments need to determine the expectations of learners to help them learn in the most effective manner. These include the employees learning styles, their interests, and current skill sets. The trainers identify how to break down the training into sessions and lessons. They use a mix of materials, methods and resources to adapt to the various learning styles. Some employees may require leadership training, while other employees need to develop technical skills. Some training may be shorter, while other training may be over a longer period of time. The trainers need to decide what delivery method is best for each training program to ensure the learning experience is of interest and is a satisfactory experience for the learners.
- Stakeholder support: Without the key stakeholders commitment and support, training may be a failure. When the leadership of the company buys-into the training programs, employees are more eager to participate. The leadership team must be a champion of the training program, and support the benefits of the training to the employee and to the organization.
- Check in with the employees: This is a time to go back to employees and discuss the new learning and goals. HR departments want to include the employees through prioritizing employee goals, discussing the gaps, re-enforcing the need for the training and explaining how the training aligns with the strategic training goals of the organization.
- Monitor progress: HR departments need to monitor the progress of the employee and the training programs. They can do this through metrics and measurements of success. A continual assessment will ensure effective training and ensure continued alignment with the company training goals.
- Culture of Learning: Ongoing learning is part of the process of a learning culture. A Learning Culture is a workplace that encourages individual, group and organizational learning, and everyone learns and gains knowledge, they share knowledge and are rewarded for learning. An organizations learning culture is customized to the specific needs and goals of that company. Learning opportunities are offered to everyone, and is inclusive
(edX for Business, 2022).
High Potential Programs
High potential (hi-po) programs are concerned with the early identification and the development of employees who have the potential to assume leadership positions in the future. If we would transpose such a program in the hockey world, it would be a system that identifies pee-wee players with the most potential and make sure that they get the coaching and the team environment needed to develop into elite NHL players.
Keys to these programs are (a) the identification of talent and (b) the development of this talent. First, potential has to be identified early. Large organizations often flag hi-po’s in their very first years in the company. This early identification is difficult to do and often leads to false positives (or employees identified as hi-po’s who do not develop into superior executives). This is the reason why companies tend to cast a wide net and identify as many hi-po’s as possible. After talent has been identified, it needs to be groomed. Over time, the careers of hi-po’s are carefully managed to make sure that they reach their full potential. For example, HR managers often use developmental experiences such as international assignments to make sure that hi-po’s are put in situations where they can grow.
“Employee Development” from Human Resources Management – 2nd Ontario Edition by Elizabeth Cameron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
