A strong people development strategy helps employees enhance skills and performance, driving organizational growth and success. Prioritizing employee development improves retention, engagement, and productivity while fostering a competitive, future-ready workforce.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
Email | Call (888) 600-8654
Have a quick question? I answered nearly 1500 FAQs.
Investing in your employees’ growth and development is a surefire way to keep good employees and increase productivity. What steps can you take as a human resources expert to ensure that your company’s strategy for developing its employees is successful? Let’s investigate.
Any program or policy put in place by an organization to assist its workers in improving their knowledge, abilities, and conduct is seen as part of people development. All of these endeavors stem from a people development plan that the company has put in place to help it achieve its objectives.
Human Resources (or, in bigger companies, Learning and Development) is often in charge of the strategy and implementation of people development programs.
Job shadowing, (peer) coaching, specialized training, mentorship programs, and countless other options are all part of the development process. A few examples of people development will be examined later on in this piece.
People development should be a top priority for your company for numerous reasons. The following are some examples:
Individuals, groups, and the entire company should all work together to foster a culture of learning, says the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). People who work for companies that value learning and development tend to think in terms of continuous improvement.
An excellent example of a corporation that places a strong emphasis on people development is New York Life Insurance Co. The organization strives to make learning an integral part of every encounter and connection, seizing every moment as a chance for learning.
Job rotation refers to the process of transferring workers from one position to another within an organization. Jobs at the same level often have rotations, which are not the same as promotions. They are also often short-lived, with participants returning to their previous responsibilities once the allotted time has passed.
One of the best ways to ensure that employees gain new abilities and information is to have them rotate through different jobs. Before assuming a more senior leadership position, a manager, for instance, could gain valuable experience by rotating across different divisions of the company. The same holds true for marketing managers: they can learn a lot by helping out on different teams.
Two or more coworkers might benefit from peer coaching in a number of ways, including: improving existing practices; learning new skills; teaching and learning from one another; conducting research in the classroom; and solving problems at work.
New hires in particular can benefit greatly from the growth opportunities presented by work rotation in conjunction with peer coaching.
In order to address certain skill shortages within a company, targeted training incorporates both formal and informal learning methods. New and current employees can benefit greatly from this method of making sure they are ready for their jobs and have the resources they need to succeed.
When a company invests in its employees’ skill sets, it ensures that they have what it takes to meet the company’s strategic goals and stay ahead of the competition.
One way to achieve this goal is to implement skill-building programs that target the development of particular abilities among workers. Imagine problem-solving serious games, customer persona stories, simulations of everyday dilemmas, and games that help you communicate better.
Job shadowing is an approach to learning by doing that lets curious workers observe and, in certain cases, copy the actions of an experienced worker in a particular position.
If you’re an employee looking to gain some new skills or explore a different career path, job shadowing is a great method to do it.
There are a variety of components that make up self-paced learning. Academy to Innovate HR’s certificate programs and courses, for instance, allow HR professionals to learn at their own speed. The student can work through the course content at his or her own speed and from any location using self-paced learning.
In most cases, mentorship programs can be either long-term or short-term. While micro-mentoring is a form of short-term mentoring, peer mentoring is an example of a program that lasts for a long time.
A fresh and novel approach to mentoring in the workplace, micro-mentoring typically lasts only a few hours or days and is very brief in duration. There is a laser-like concentration on a single area of expertise or activity, and the time commitment for mentors and mentees is minimal.
This shorter-term mentoring program might work in tandem with other mentorship initiatives at your company. It just opens up another easily accessible chance for staff to learn and grow.
While no two companies’ people development strategies will be identical, there are a few things to keep in mind when you craft yours:
Evaluate the aims and objectives of the company. To identify which people development areas should prioritize skill, behavior, and capability enhancement, it is helpful to have a firm grasp of the organization’s overall aims and objectives.
Evaluate the training requirements. Determine where your company is lacking in the necessary abilities to support your expansion. The following are some examples of pertinent questions for a TNA:
Choose the most appropriate approaches to people development. Think about the best people development strategies to use based on the skill gaps that need to be filled. As we already said, a job rotation in the business operations area could help your senior HR professionals learn more about running a business.
Create plans for the professional growth of your staff. Collaborate with your employees to design personalized plans for professional growth that take into account their interests, skills, and the demands of their job and team.
Become a more proficient HR/L&D specialist. Consider the development needs and skill gaps of your HR team when you construct a people development strategy that will continually be effective. Think about how you may strengthen your HR career and contribute more value to the company in the future by honing your talents in this area.
Recruit competent individuals. Building the proper culture in your firm is just as important as hiring the right individuals with the right talents. People with a growth mentality are more common in companies that value education and training. If you want to hire people who will fit in with your company’s culture and help it achieve its learning and development objectives, you should think about more than simply how well they fit in now.
Keep trying new things. Do not close yourself off to new ideas just because your current people development activities are producing the desired results. Consider experimenting with novel methods of employee learning support, such as micro-mentoring, job rotations, or recommending self-paced courses.
When implemented properly, a people development strategy may assist your staff in acquiring the knowledge, attitudes, and abilities necessary to contribute to the company’s continued growth and success. A well-rounded approach incorporates a variety of people development strategies that address various learning styles and help individuals gain proficiency in a certain area.
Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.
See all blogs: Business | Corporate | Employment Law
Most recent blogs:
Contact our attorney.