Employee Development

Here at Monar Consulting we sometimes have a “Professional Development” hour after lunch. This hour is spent individually developing knowledge and skills that we find interesting or useful. We can read a book about how to be a better leader or research topics of interest. I love this aspect of Monar Consulting. It makes me feel like I am a valued part of the business and my development is important.

Not all companies are invested in employee development. There are many that are, however. These companies also approach employee development in many different ways. Some allow cross-functional teams, job-rotation, or goal setting as employee development techniques.

The question is: How can your company benefit from an employee development program?

Organizations have employee development programs for many reasons. The premise behind these programs is to allow employees to become stronger in their strengths and weaknesses. If organizations could develop their employees to make their weakness a strength then now the organization has more skills available throughout the organization.

The fewer weaknesses an individual has then the better an employee he/she will make. The employee can now pull from a wider variety of skills to accomplish tasks. If your organization is teamed based, that means a greater pool of employees to choose from for projects. More ideas and possible less homogeneity will arise from this greater pool of employees.

How to develop these employees is a large endeavor, however. The program starts with the company emphasizing the importance of employee development. The program will require the cooperation and enthusiasm of managers. Managers are the focal point of employee development programs.

Without managers, development of employees would be near impossible. It is up to managers to set goals with employees and allow them to participate in activities that allow them to develop. Performance appraisals (PA) are one aspect of employee development programs. PAs are a good time to set goals and review goals of the previous year. It is also a good time for employees to bring up areas that they would like to develop beyond those identified by the manager.

Regardless of what type of employee development program you choose it will benefit your organization. More engaged employees are more productive. Employees that feel like the company cares about them are more likely to be engaged. More productive employees equal more organizational goals met. It’s a win-win situation.