Employee Development

What Is Employee Development?

Employee development is a joint, on-going effort on the part of an employee and the
organization for which he or she works to upgrade the employee's knowledge, skills,
and abilities. Successful employee development requires a balance between an
individual's career needs and goals and the organization's need to get work done.

Employee development programs make positive contributions to organizational

performance. A more highly-skilled workforce can accomplish more and a
supervisor's group can accomplish more as employees gain in experience and
knowledge.

Why Should Employee Skills and Abilities Be Developed?

Employee development is a necessary component of a company’s efforts to:

- improve quality

- retain key employees

- meet the challenges of global competition and social change

- incorporate technological advances and changes in work design

In addition, retaining an employee saves the organization a great deal of money. One
method of retention is to provide opportunities to develop new skills. In research
conducted to assess what retained employees, development was one of the top three
retention items.
 Employee Development Means
Development of Organization

Stages of Employee Development

Everyone goes through several stages of development as they move from being a
career "beginner" to a full expert in their field. Each stage has specific needs and tasks
to consider. As you work with employees on development, it can be helpful to look at
their stage in order to find the best kind of activities for them. Keep in mind that the
stages do not relate to age. If an employee has recently completed a career change, he
or she is probably in the "exploration and trial" stage. If, on the other hand, he or she
has burned out on his or her career, he or she might be in "disengagement" even
though chronologically he or she might be in his or her early thirties in age.
 Stage Characteristics Needs Tasks
Work with regular Learn to ask for Develop self-image
guidance help in the job
Exploration and
Trial
Work is routine, Learn to take Becomes a " "
detailed initiative
Has own area of Build a reputation Accept
responsibility organizational
Learn to work realities
Work independently independently
Learn how to cope
Establishment and
Independence and Produce significant
Advancement
specialization results Deal with change or
lack of it

Learn how to get

ahead
Responsible for Feel disappointment Develop others
guiding others if goals are not through knowledge
Mid Career: Growth,
achieved
Maintenance,
Use great breadth of Serve as mentor
Decline
technical skill to Learn to help others
support organization
Use experience to Prepare Learn to let go
provide direction for psychologically for
the organization retirement Achieve balance in
Disengagement
life
Influence decisions Learn to accept a
different role
The Role of the Supervisor in Employee Development
The supervisor has several roles to play, but providing information and support to
facilitate the employee's development is what is most important.

There are a few basic roles for a supervisor in developing employees. They include:

• Coaching employees to help them determine what they need for

development
• Providing both positive and corrective feedback
• Offering organizational insight, information, and advice
• Guiding the planning through goal setting and checking back over time
• Allocating time and money for development experiences
• Ensuring opportunities for applications of new learning

It is very helpful for an employee to get an honest assessment of their work, as well as
access to others who may be able to provide information or coach the employee.

The successful supervisor will also respect every employee's learning curve. It takes
time for anyone to learn new skills and be able to apply them well; this does not
happen overnight. Building this development time into the application of a new skill
set will make the employee more successful.
The Role of the Employee
Some things that the employee should consider in their own development include
seeking a variety of assignments, tackling tough problems and asking for feedback.
Coaching is another helpful activity, both in looking for opportunities to coach others
and finding good coaches for him or herself. It can help to ask for feedback when
working with a variety of people and in a variety of situations. Employees should be
looking for developmental relationships that can provide a variety of learning. They
can also identify goals for new skills and abilities and then look for ways to meet
those goals. It can also be helpful to attend classes and workshops to fill in conceptual
needs.

While employee development is critical to the success of an organization, both the

employee and the organization must recognize that most of the responsibility for
development falls to the employee.

Some things the employee should have and consider when beginning work towards
development:

• Specific goals; identify goals for new skills and look for ways to meet
those goals
• Energy to make the development possible
• A variety of work assignments
• Asking for feedback
• Opportunities to coach others and finding good coaches for him or
herself
• Developmental relationships that provide a variety of learning
Employee Development Approaches

There are several approaches to employee development that can be used to help
manage and improve employee performance. The best programs incorporate several
methods, choosing options appropriate for the composition of your workforce, the
objectives you need to accomplish, and to allow for individual differences in learning
styles.

Career Planning

Engaging in career planning activities is an important part of a company's employee

development efforts. Having open discussions with your employees about their long
term goals is an excellent way to identify the types of employee development
activities that are most appropriate to help employees fulfill their potential and grow
with the organization.

Cross Training

Encouraging cross training is a great way to provide employees with an opportunity to

develop new skills that can benefit them and the organization.

Classroom Training
Sponsoring on-site training or sending employees to attend off-site seminars related to
performance goals and objectives can be a great way to develop workers' skills.

Performance Management

Encouraging mangers to providing employees with regular feedback is an important

part of any comprehensive employee development system. Rather than waiting to let
employees know how they are doing during annual review meetings, managers should
make a point of regularly acknowledging good work and providing corrective
feedback for areas where improvement may be needed.

360 Degree Feedback

Rather than providing performance feedback only from an employee's direct

supervisor, many companies are incorporating 360 degree feedback systems into their
employee development plans. This involves getting feedback from the employee's
manager, peers, internal customers, and others in the organization that interact with
him or her on a regular basis.

Activities involved in development planning using the 360-degree feedback process:

Understand strengths and weaknesses

Review ratings for strengths and weaknesses
Identify skills or behaviors where self and others’ ratings agree and disagree

Identify a development goal

Choose a skill or behavior to develop
Set a clear, specific goal with a specified outcome
Coaching and Mentoring

Providing coaching and mentoring opportunities in the workplace can be an excellent

employee development activity, particularly when grooming star performers to step
up to leadership roles in the organization.

Characteristics of Successful Formal Mentoring and coaching

Programs:

1- Mentor and protégé participation is voluntary

relationship can be ended at any time without fear of punishment

2- Mentor-protégé matching process does not limit the ability of informal

relationships to develop

3- Mentors are chosen on the basis of:

- their past record in developing employees

- willingness to serve as a mentor

- evidence of positive coaching, communication, and listening skills

Coach – a peer or manager who works with employees to:

1- motivate them

2- help them develop skills

3- provide reinforcement and feedback

Coaches need to be able to suggest effective improvement actions.

Company Training Needs Analysis

Choosing the best approaches to employee development should be partially based a

training needs analysis for the company. Look at the skills that exist in the current
workforce and compare that to the skill needed to perform the company's work today
and into the future. The gap represents employee development needs for the
organization.

Individual Employee Development

It's also important to identify training needs for individual employees. Identify the gap
between what employees are able to do today and what skills they need to meet the
needs of the organization and to accomplish their own career goals, to the extent they
are aligned with the company's strategic plans. This information can form the basis of
an individual employee development plan.

The results of Employee Development:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees

• Increased employee motivation
• Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
• Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
• Increased innovation in strategies and products
• Reduced employee turnover
• Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good
reason for ethics training!)
• Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diver
References:

1- Philip James, (1996) "Employee development programmes:

The US auto approach", Personnel Review

2- Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick

Wright: Human Resource Management Gaining A Competitive
Advantage .7th Edition . Mc Graw-Hill

3- www.1.umn.edu/ohr/toolkit/development/index.html