12 Ways to Develop your Employees
Developing your employees is an aspect of performance management and very vital to the company as a whole as it increases productivity and the quality of work. With your job being an HR Role, it is one of your responsibilities to develop HR plans in order to better the employees and bring them to their fullest potential.
12 Ways to Develop your Employees
Set Goals
In order to set proper goals in developing your employees, start first by putting your company’s goals into consideration. Remember your employees’ performance in this will have a direct effect on the company, so steer your goals into the desired direction where it will benefit greatly. Then take a look at the current capabilities and performance of the employees to determine what can be improved and what they will need to learn. Break them down into smaller goals so that you can give yourself a timeline in their development through their progress.
Offer Feedback
One way of developing your employee in terms of skill and performance is by giving them feedback on it. It could be a simple act like telling them they did a good job, to having a one on one meeting with them and having a positive discussion about the work they do for the company. It gives you an opportunity to better their employee skills if there is any room for improvement. Doing this will increase the employees’ productivity as it inspires them to do their best during working hours.
Create an Individual Development Plan
Everybody has different needs, and implementing the same development plan on them may not always work. Guide your employees to the best they can be by creating a development plan that is designed specifically just for them. You can start by looking at the individual reports regarding their work output. See what opportunities are available to them based on their current skill sets and maybe even carve out a career path for them.
Provide Training and Development
Training and development are educational activities wherein new skills are taught, and existing skills are developed. Several reasons why this is implemented is because of the positive outcome of these training, examples include a boost in employee engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, and morale. Providing these to your employees gives them the opportunity to learn new skills that will allow them to grow professionally.
Provide Growth Opportunities
Planning to develop your employees allows them to grow in terms of skill sets and in attitude towards the job. Not only that but it gives them a reason to stick with your company for a long time. One of the factors of employee commitment is being given the chance to improve and grow as a skilled worker. Gaining advanced skills is also appealing for an employee if they are working to obtain a higher job position. Some examples of growth opportunities include a progression in job responsibilities, providing skill-based training, and giving special job assignments.
Appreciate Employees’ Accomplishment
Developing an employee doesn’t necessarily mean sending them to various training and giving them new work to do. Sometimes all it takes is showing appreciation to your employees for a job well done. Other ways you can show your appreciation is by organizing an employee engagement activity, rewarding them non-cash rewards or granting them additional benefits. Doing this can give a boost to the morale of your employees and give them an incentive to always do their best at work.
Give Them Resources
Sometimes all an employee needs to improve and develop themselves is by giving them resources. These could be anything from equipment, benefits, training or even access to certain perks. It really does go a long way when you give the best employee the best equipment. For starters, there’ll be a significant boost in motivation and productivity.
Conduct Frequent Review Meetings
As a part of employee relations, it is vital to have frequent review meetings with your employees. In these meetings, you may discuss their performance and check up on them for whatever personal issues they have that might be affecting them in the office. Showing concern for an employee can inspire employee commitment as it gives them the idea that the office looks out for them.
Provide Mentoring
If an employee of yours is doing an exceptionally great job, it will do you a lot of good to nurture that employee professionally. If you see potential in them among the upper ranks of the company, you may implement a mentorship onto them wherein they learn and shadow another higher up in the company. Grooming them to become a leader, and carving out a career path for them is an excellent way to develop an employee to make them an even better asset to the company.
Encourage Networking
Through the use of employee engagement events and activities, you will be able to facilitate employee networking. Being in different departments often prevent most of them from interacting with each other, but in giving this opportunity, it could lead to a lot of things that could develop an employee in a positive way. When you encourage networking, you also encourage employees to collaborate with each other and to also create bonds that will help strengthen the company.
Offer Cross-Departmental Training
It is the training of employees in different kinds of job responsibilities outside of their department. Instead of making your employees stick to one thing for a long time, offer them the opportunity to try something new at work. If there is a set of skills that your employees can learn from another department, offering them cross-departmental training is a great way to implement that. It also encourages employees from different departments to interact with each other and develop camaraderie, which can lead to the development of a healthy work environment. It also allows for collaboration between departments which in turn leads to unique approaches to problem-solving during work hours.
Giving Rewards and Promotions
While some people see doing the job as its own reward, a lot of people tend to work and expect something valuable in return. If you want to develop your employees, you may use this to motivate them to do better. Some ways you can give rewards and recognition range from giving them non-cash gifts to giving them a benefit like a paid leave. Those that go above and beyond their job should also be considered for a promotion, as their performance is a good indicator that their talents are ready for more job responsibilities, it also doesn’t hurt that a rise in their salary comes with that promotion.
The fact that it encourages a lot of great things for the company, gives you many reasons to implement employee development plans in the workplace. If a performance review can lead to a boost in employee productivity, what more could be achieved if a few more methods of employee development are included as well? It’ll be certainly worth it for sure, as a good employee always bring a good company.
More in HR
