Companies have been specifically focusing on employee development as this is a proven method of retaining the top talent and building a brand in the market. The investment in the employee development programs can trade your replacement hiring cost which surely is much more than the training and development cost.
The returns on employee development initiatives will reap you a lot of other benefits like improved performance, better leaders, ample internal growth that will reduce your hiring cost of leadership roles, etc. For millennials, the employee development program that the company provides is one of the checkboxes while choosing, or at times even applying, the company they want to work with.
Listed below are some ways with the help of which you can begin to improve the employee development at your company.
Let the managers be the coaches:
Earlier managers were the ones who used to coach their team members by means of passing knowledge, skills and nitigrities of the fucition. With the change in work culture and the responsibilities, the responsibilities have been passed to the dedicated function of training and development. Yet, the managers are the best guides in terms of applying the knowledge practically and driving the required results. A formal training can impart theoretical knowledge but for hand holding and practical experience there are no coaches better than the managers. However, with the kind of role and responsibilities they handle, it becomes difficult to perform this job. To motivate them to wear the cap of a coach on the required occasions, it is suggested that they should be incentivised. Incentives can be in the form of monetary benefits or other lucrative options like job promotion, travel, etc.
Managers can play a key role in boosting employee morale and productivity. However, managers themselves need to learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to providing leadership. By pursuing executive coaching dubai, managers can improve their leadership skills. This can help them cover areas like troubleshooting problems, finding solutions, assessing employee credentials and help develop their overall managerial skills. Companies need to understand that investing in leadership coaching can go a long way in improving internal efficiency and streamlining performance across all verticals of a business organization.
Life of learning and development:
With the fast pace changes in the corporate world, upskilling and upgrading your employees has become the need of the hour. Unlike traditional trends, where the knowledge earned once used to work for years, in the modern trends, the knowledge becomes obsolete within months. The training and development should become a continuous and on-going process. This will not only keep the employees upgraded with the latest technologies and skills but will inculcate the confidence of being valued by the company. Keeping them engaged by developing them professionally will earn their loyalty towards the company. The caveat is, the balance between the right information and too much information needs to be struck
Flexible learning options:
The learning and development is the need for both the employer and the employee. However, to accommodate training with their heavy workloads might be overwhelming and might be stressful. Providing flexible learning options by exploiting the technology is the good solution. A robust learning management solution from Skilljar leverages the employees to take up training in smaller chunks by easily accommodating them in their day to day life. These training programs through LMS can be accessed from any device and from anywhere.
Mix and match learning styles:
With different generations working in the same work environment, it is important to consider the different styles of learning to match the employees preferences and expectations. Also, training and development programs should be curated based on the department and the topic of training. It is best to have blended development programs that include both the online courses and classroom sessions. As the corporations might have workforce scattered in various locations, involving them through video conferencing provides them the sense of inclusiveness.
Conclusion: It is understood and accepted by the organizations that having a focussed development program is beneficial in many ways. However, you can choose the best options based on the trends emerging from the existing development programs.