Stage Four of the Employee Lifecycle Model series is Development. As a reminder, the Employee Lifecycle Model is an organizational method used to visualize how an employee engages with the company they are a part of. There are six stages involved in this model: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, Retention, and Separation.
On paper, just about everyone agrees that career development should be a top priority for employees and employers alike. Nevertheless, about 70 percent of employees say they are dissatisfied with learning and growth opportunities at their companies. Why is that? Like many things, it comes down to time and money. Unfortunately, those who don’t believe they have the time or money to invest in a true development plan, end up spending more time and money on employee churn in the long run.
Companies need to make the commitment to design realistic and achievable career paths for each group in your organization. Then communicate them; celebrate them. It’s like providing the rules of a game and then guiding and teaching them how to play: the more information players have and the more they practice – the better players they will be.
Of course, it isn’t as easy as “just do it”, but there are many sources of information available to assist a company through this process. Here are a few guiding principles to help you on your way.
- Assess knowledge and skills together, then encourage employees to take responsibility for their own path.
Work with your teams directly to best identify each person’s skills and areas of expertise, as well as their goals and desires. Leveraging their own insight into their performance, you can work together to create a plan and prioritize areas that require further development. Make sure this plan is SMART and ACTIONABLE and can truly help them develop their abilities and increase their chances of career advancement. This is a great way to establish an open, honest feedback-driven relationship between you and members of your team.
- Leverage the digital workplace.
The digital workplace has come a long way in applying new improvements to coaching, training and development. Gamification and e-learning, for example, is a popular method that has proven to be successful for both new and long-term employees. This kind of interactive learning boosts employee engagement and strengthens employees’ ability to tackle large or complex projects. By creating hands-on learning experiences, the traditional “watch this video” is shelved, and the learner propels their own development journey. - Reward employees who make the investment.
Most development courses/sessions take place during work hours, but you may find team members take part in regular, informal opportunities outside their normal work hours. When you hear of a staff member doing this, make a point of finding out more about it, sincerely thank them for their efforts and celebrate their initiative. You may even invite them to share their newfound knowledge in a lunch-and-learn setting or other “round table” event.
Like the annual employee survey, many companies are moving away from the annual performance review, as it is simply not frequent or personalized enough to generate genuine insight. Comprehensive development plans motivate employees, boosting both engagement, productivity and retention – a win-win for everyone involved.
Need help implementing a winning strategy? This is where E78 can be a game changer for you.
E78 works with you to define what success looks like for your business and turns that into a compelling story to attract game changing talent. We create a consistent measurement / evaluation framework for assessing candidates and aligning your stakeholders. THIS is the kind of support and guidance you need to identify and land game changers and fully take advantage of the Employee Lifecycle Model.
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