Ways to Develop Employees to Reach their Potential

Going through the recruitment and hiring processes are time-consuming and stressful enough. You want to make sure your employees stay with your company. High turnover also doesn’t look good on you as an employer. This is why it’s very important to keep your employees engaged and further develop their skills, so they can take on more responsibility and grow within your company.

Create Individual Development Plans

In order for you and your employees to be on the same page about their growth within the company, sit down and discuss their individual career goals and interests. Add this to your on-boarding process for every new hire and implement it with your current employees, so you know what areas of skill development or training you should provide them to increase your return on investment (ROI).

Review Performance Regularly

Once you have set a plan for development for each of your employees, it’s important that their progress is to be reviewed by you or their direct supervisor regularly. Set specific metrics and quantifiable goals, so you and the employee are on the same understanding.

Provide Inside & Outside Resources

Whether it’s a biweekly training hour for all employees to learn a shared skill or invest in online training programs for individual employees to grow within their position, it’s important that you encourage time for training during normal work hours.

You can also provide resources outside of work for employees to further their development. Push your employees to attend community classes or conferences linked to your industry and have them discuss and teach their peers what they learned. You can even promote going back to school by providing full or partial tuition reimbursement for employees who continue their education.

Offer Cross-Departmental Training

Each of your employees has something to teach their coworkers. Allow space for employees from different departments of your business to teach their colleagues about their department. Giving your employees the opportunity to learn different facets of the business will not only help them understand your business better, but help them to effectively do their job.

Encourage Networking & Joining Outside Organizations

Don’t just assume that encouraging your employees to network or join organizations outside of work will give them more access to find another job. Networking is not just an activity for finding a new job. It’s also about building relationships with other people within and outside of your industry. This allows employees to gain new connections that can benefit future business deals, fill a needed position within the company, or even give your employees new and effective ideas and processes to implement in your company.

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