The world of work has undergone a radical change in the past two years. Melissa Paris says that we have moved from the Great Resignation, and a candidate-driven market to a period of organisational anxiety and uncertainty.
Week after week, the possibility of a possible recession is becoming more real. News of mass layoffs continues to dominate headlines. Employers are looking for ways to boost performance and retain talent with tight budgets.
Even in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty, employees still seek out one constant: development. Many employees today are uncertain about the future and want to invest now in their own skills and abilities to stay employed and achieve their career goals. Professional development can be a solution to many challenges that businesses face when it comes to achieving engagement and performance, even in tough times.
The benefits of development are numerous, but they’re especially important for performance and engagement. This article explains the challenges faced by modern employers, and how development can be used to help you achieve performance and development.
How engagement is boosted by development
Problem – An ineffective employee training strategy
Culture Amp’s Culture Lab shows that the second biggest driver of employee engagement is development. Companies that invest in L&D see their employees 14.6 points more engaged. While this is a strong argument for investing in development, few companies do it correctly.
Many organisations regularly conduct engagement surveys but don’t know where to begin when it comes time to improve engagement. This often places the responsibility of retaining employees and increasing engagement on managers. However, this can lead to inconsistent outcomes and unfair experiences for workers. A personalized approach to employee development is the answer. You can increase employee engagement by providing clear growth opportunities for your employees, empowering them to take ownership of their own development and helping managers to support career aspirations.
Solutions
Career coaches can be trained to manage managers
Culture Lab data shows that employees in companies with managers who are interested in the career goals of their direct reports are 15,6 percentage points more engaged. The same data also shows that direct reports who are not shown interest by their manager in their career will be 43 percent more likely leave. Your managers will be able to gain the knowledge and resources they need in order to have high quality career conversations with their direct reports. They can also help them set up clear, personalised goals and provide coaching along the way.
Employee development: Take charge of your own development
Employees should not be forced to wait until their managers start investing in them to grow. A good employee development tool provides employees with opportunities for continual learning, easy-to access plans that are adaptable, reminders and measurable goals. It empowers employees to be responsible for their own growth every day. Employees who create their own development plans in partnership with their managers can envision a rewarding future for your company. This helps to increase engagement and retention.
Use engagement results to pinpoint your development needs
Employee engagement surveys should (and can) be the fuel for your employee development strategies. You can use the results of your most recent survey to identify which groups of employees may require more support for growth and development. Perhaps early career employees would benefit from mentorship programs or additional on the job training. Maybe your new managers want to know how to lead a team effectively. Let your findings influence where and how your business invests its development budget.
You can collect new survey data and check how employee attitudes toward development has changed since you updated your L&D strategies. These insights will allow you to evaluate the impact of any changes, while also tracking and addressing longer-term trends in employee development.
How development boosts performance
Employees are not aware of what they should be doing
Many HR professionals are looking for ways to improve their internal performance and mobility in today’s highly competitive market. Investing in training is one way to avoid costs associated with new hires and maintain the performance of existing employees. Employees often don’t know what is expected of them or how their role will evolve in the future. Employees must know what success means for their roles, and what they have to do today to succeed, in order to make development work. They can then deliver what is expected of them and invest in their development to improve their performance.
Solutions
Separate conversations about performance and development
Your business can ensure that the development of employees is given its own space by separating performance and development conversations. It gives employees and managers the opportunity to reflect on their performance before planning and identifying future development opportunities. It has been proven that separating these two conversations improves the quality of each conversation and increases employee motivation.
Employees can improve their strengths and areas of opportunity by focusing on them.
After the performance review is complete, employees can use feedback to create personal development goals. These goals allow employees to improve their existing strengths and work on improving other areas. These development goals will help your employees grow as professionals and individuals. These goals not only advance the careers of your employees, but they also help your business grow talent and benefit from improved employee performance.
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Melissa Paris, the EMEA Regional Director for People Science at Culture Amp.
