Employees are your most valuable resource, and investing in your talent is crucial for sustainable business growth and success. Without your talent, even the most sought after modern technology would not function. This is why it is essential to invest in them. Your employees’ contribution reflects on the failure or success of your organisation.
Employee development is a process that enables employees to acquire knowledge and enhance their skills. It can be conducted in the form of online courses, feedback sessions, fellowships, mentoring and coaching, workshops among others. Employee development builds employee morale, potential and drives performance.
In order for employee development to work effectively, it needs to be a continuous process within your organisation, and generally part of your company culture.
Your Staff Are Your Biggest Asset
On any given day, your staff remains your biggest asset. In order to grow your staff’s capabilities and skills, you need to invest in them.
One CFO once asked the CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us? The CEO responded: “what happens if we don’t and they stay?’’
Your biggest monthly expense in any company is the cost of staff. If you owned an asset, equal to the salary bill monthly – you would most certainly keep that asset painted, serviced, etc – yet why is the development of staff seen differently? The answer most HR professionals give is, “we are not sure what to spend our money on – we also need to see a return on the investment we put into our staff’’ – and this is the conundrum most employers face when they talk about developing our staff.
What You Need To Understand
- You first need to understand what needs to be developed. Holding one-on-one meetings or surveys to understand where your employees are lacking is a great start as opposed to waiting for performance reviews.
- Do you actually have a clear view of this? Once you receive feedback from your employees, identify and prioritise what needs to be addressed.
- Do you actually know the impact it would have on your business if your employees’ skills are lacking? Understanding the impact allows you to draw up a tailor-made plan to address the problem.
Understanding and unpacking these elements gives you an overview of what you need to look at first.
Final Thoughts On Employee Development
Employee development is a continuous process. Think of it as a lifestyle or culture within your organisation; this is why you should create a development-friendly environment that encourages your staff to continue developing their skills.
What are you doing to invest in your employees’ development? We would like to hear from you.