Business Management -- Ways to encourage employee development
Justworks offers 19 ways to encourage employees to engage in impactful professional development.
Employee development isn’t just about basic job skills. It’s about strengthening your team, increasing employee morale and building an even stronger business.
1. Propose regular one-on-one meetings. To foster a culture of two-way communication and feedback, propose managers to hold regular one-on-one discussions with their direct reports. This provides a way for managers and employees to exchange information and reflect on how things are going, while also identifying and discussing training needs.
2. Involve employees in goal setting. Managers can share overall departmental goals, then guide employees to reflect on their own work. Are they being challenged? Are they ready to take on a new or different kind of project? In what areas do they think they need to improve?
4. Foster upward mobility. Employees want to work for organizations where they feel they have opportunities to advance. Try offering development tracks that allow employees to deepen their skills for the roles they’re in as well as cross train for lateral opportunities or develop skills needed to advance.
6. Establish a training schedule. Set aside time in their schedules for professional development by establishing a regular time for training sessions. For example, make “Training on Tuesdays” a regular thing, with different types of training happening each week of the month. This way, employees can plan for development opportunities.
7. Source training topics from employees. Ask employees to suggest learning and development topics. Team members are much more likely to participate in development opportunities if they have some input around what is offered.
8. Support knowledge sharing. If employees share the information they’ve learned, others will be more likely to follow suit. Provide opportunities for employees to share what they’ve learned with other team members. To encourage even deeper involvement, invite employees who have specialized expertise to teach workshops.
9. Develop train-the-trainer sessions. Some employees may want to share their expertise, but may not really know how to design, develop or deliver instruction. Remove that barrier to employee participation by offering a ‘train-the-trainer’ course a few times each year, which can provide employees a convenient solution to build the skills they need to succeed.
10. Consider a peer mentoring program. It can be a powerful employee training resource for newbies and builds employee loyalty and fosters a culture of belonging. Mentoring also helps build leadership skills.
11. Implement cross-departmental training. Allow employees to learn from different departments via cross-department training. They’ll better understand how the company works and develop how their work impacts other departments.
12. Provide employee development resources. Make sure your employees know where to find resources about development offerings.
14. Advocate for external training. Employees can – and should – work on themselves outside of the workplace. Budget for outside development activities and invite employees to attend classes or conferences focusing on skills that are linked to your industry or their area of specialty. Then, provide opportunities for employees to share what they learned with peers.
15. Suggest professional organizations. Joining organizations specific to the industry or employees’ occupations can help employees grow. They have an opportunity to develop relationships with like-minded professionals while staying on top of new developments in their field.
16. Endorse business networking. Think about joining the Chamber of Commerce or other business-focused organizations and urge employees to participate in the group’s networking events and activities.
17. Recognize training accomplishments. This can be as simple as awarding certificates of attendance for training sessions or programs. With multiple courses, combine related topics into programs and celebrate when students “graduate” from topic-specific programs or levels of achievement.
19. Be a role model via active participation. If you’re engaging in professional development yourself, your employees will be more likely to do so as well. Be a role model for your team by actively participating in learning opportunities yourself. By modeling this behavior, you’ll positively impact the perception of your company as a learning organization in which professional development is valued at all levels.
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Justworks helps businesses with their benefits, payroll, and everything else they need to take care of their team. Learn more at www.justworks.com.
This article originally appeared in the July-August 2022 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine. ©2022 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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