In the ever-changing world of HR management, one term that recurs more often than most is ’employee development’. It is part and parcel of company growth that affects the careers of particular individuals and the company’s overall achievements. 

Moving down, let me elucidate more about the ‘employee development program‘ and some ways that may lead you to win BIG with such employees and executives who desire to see some figures improving.  

What is Employee Development? 

Employee development elevates learning, experience, and career advancements to develop capacities, knowledge, and aptitudes. It is a purposeful, unbroken, deliberate organizational management approach to enhance performance and effectiveness. 

An extensive perspective of the training and development also includes the overall growth and career progression of the employee in the organization. This strategic investment by the organization promotes employee engagement and provides them with the necessary competencies to respond to altered business environments. 

High-Impact Employee Development Strategies 

Regarding the development of employees, there is no general approach that may apply to everyone. Also, you will discover many ways of developing and executing a sound employee development plan. Among the long list of ways employees can be created, these are the most common and impactful for businesses:  

Each of the methods of EMP employee development has a specific purpose. Organizations often implement several strategies simultaneously or use more strategies within a single type of program to achieve a more powerful impact. Lastly, the strategy you may wish to use for the employee development program must positively match your organization and the workforce’s requirements.  

1. Onboarding 

Many organizations have some programs during the onboarding, although they may only sometimes be professional and planned. This is rather unexceptional since one cannot expect a new hire to have all the information regarding the company.  

Despite signifying the right skills in their specialty, new employees might take time to get acquainted with the culture and style of the new working environment, which is part of the onboarding process. Proper onboarding must be implemented by the HR managers so that fresh hires can stay with the company; however, only some organizations have successfully designed efficient initiatives.   

2. Directed and Self-Directed Courses 

Consultant or employee development courses are an effective way to assist the workers in gaining new knowledge and orientation in the company. There are two primary ways of doing this, with the channels being directed content and self-generated content. 

• Directed courses are achieved by offering an outside trainer to provide courses to employees on specific skills or by running internal classes (face-to-face or online), which experienced team members design. 

•  Self-directed courses help workers gain new skills in their workplace on their own time. Adjusting to company culture and processes — all of which are a large part of the onboarding process. Self-directed courses allow workers to learn new skills at their own pace. Companies could develop in-house courses that people can follow independently, purchase courses with rights use, or provide employees with working time to attend self-learning courses. 

Whether your organization goes through one of the routes for employee development courses, providing the workers with information and study tools is essential.  

3. Workshops and Conferences  

Flexible companies avoided this by searching for or organizing contractual workshops and sessions online. However, as soon as the world returns to the new usual, face-to-face conferences will return. They should note that conferences help workers develop an easy way of adapting to new skills related to their industry. But more importantly for the students, it creates and opens doors and opportunities to meet other people in the same line of work.  

4. Job Shadowing 

Job shadowing is one of the most valuable and essential methods of employee development and career development in today’s industries and a great type of mentoring activity.  

Primarily for onsite positions, job shadowing enables a worker to observe tasks alongside senior and long-term employees and gradually assume the responsibilities incumbent on the position. As a rule, job shadowing is associated with other employee career advancement activities, particularly onboarding. However, that does not mean that job shadowing has to be related to new-hire training and development. Job shadowing is most complementary to mentoring, particularly for workers who want to acquire functional knowledge cross-functionally.  

5. Mentoring 

Tutoring is a robust model that builds an encouraging climate of learning. More experienced members within the ranks, especially in management elected positions, help their juniors by teaching them. This mutual partnership of improvement of the mentee enhances their capabilities, and the mentor gains an opportunity for self-actualization and Output-sharing as well as promotion of fellowship in the organization.  

Conclusion 

Properly developed talent management strategies deliver employees meaningful opportunities and predictability regarding their skill enhancement and career progression. It is a win-win solution whenever the HR sponsors the employees’ learning and development processes.