How To Make Staff Development a Priority In Your Business
About the Author:
MON PATEL
National Business Development Manager NZ at EnableHR
Mon is all about smashing his goals and helping his team to do the same. Through his work he aims to make it easier for people to develop and each their full potential.
Retention and engagement are always top priority for many businesses. However, the challenge of keeping employees engaged comes down to a number of factors. These include the work itself, the management and leadership environment and of course, the continuous development opportunities available.
Today, workers want more. Employees seek meaningful work and expect employers to make their work more rewarding in many ways.
Providing rewarding work often means giving employees the ability to learn and grow on the job. In fact, most employees say they would stay with their current employer if they knew their career path.
Development: The Key to Retention
Yet, many businesses seem to lack the preparedness to provide learning and development opportunities to their employees.
All too often, organisations don’t even give their line managers the tools they need to provide employees with even basic development support.
Prioritise Training and Development
The reality for many small and medium business owners and managers, is that employee development is a low priority. It’s considered too time consuming or expensive – often because they lack the internal resources to look at development initiatives and feel the cost of resolving this outweighs the benefit.
However, this is typically a false economy. According to The Society for Human Resource Management, the total cost of replacing an employee can be anything from around 90% to 200% of that person’s annual salary.
When you do the maths, you’ll find that not giving your employees the ability to learn and grow – and seeing them go – is even more expensive and time consuming.
Individuals Adapt and Grow
Remember, an ideal employee is someone who is motivated and appropriately skilled for the position. And this is not a static thing.
Without training and development, employees can easily feel bored, lack motivation, or trapped if they are not given suitable opportunities to grow.
So, if you’re serious about attracting, retaining, and developing high-quality talent, you need to provide the appropriate pathways to nurture each employee’s professional and personal growth.
Coaching, Development, and Regular Feedback
Companies that provide such opportunities are a magnet for top talent. Retention also becomes less of an issue if you’re providing ongoing development opportunities. Fewer people will choose to leave an organisation if their professional and personal development needs are met.
That’s why it’s important to adopt performance management processes and think holistically about how to motivate, measure, and develop talent.
Of course, having appropriately trained staff is crucial for your employees to be able to carry out their work duties, efficiently and safely. It’s also important to keep your workers on top of technology changes. Investing in training for existing staff on new technology is far more efficient than replacing existing staff with more tech-savvy employees.
More Than Just Training
Professional development is not just about training, it’s about giving employees opportunities to build skills and the practical steps they can take to reach the next level of achievement within your organisation. Internal mentoring and coaching using your own people is an opportunity that’s often overlooked, yet can become an incredibly rewarding initiative.
While employees will tend to stick around if you provide great professional development opportunities, offering a clearer training and development pathway is becoming an increasingly important consideration for individuals looking for a new job.
By providing development schemes for your staff, you can enhance your employer brand and find it easier to attract a higher number of quality candidates.
Continuous and Universal
The secret to providing a successful learning and development platform is to make sure it is ongoing, flexible and benefits all your employees. If the platform ticks these boxes, it will also be highly visible and have a positive impact on your company’s bottom line.
For those who need assistance, structured programmes are available for tailored performance reviews and personal development planning. These provide the framework, allowing you to make professional growth opportunities available to all employees. You can promote an environment where work and personal growth are integral to each other and grow employee skills to fit the job. Remember, a well-defined professional development programme benefits your entire business. Engagement and retention are just the start.
National Business Development Manager NZ
EnableHR
0800 236 2253
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