What are the best ways to support employee development and career progression?

One thing most employees look forward to is progression and development. As a recruiter, this is one question I answer on a daily basis. The truth is everyone wants to grow. The only way to grow as a professional is to progress career wise in terms of responsibilities and knowledge. In order to get this right, you need to align the needs of your people with the goals of the business. Design learning and development courses to suit each individual's needs.

Before the recruitment, there should be a clear idea of why and what we need from the employee. Hence, there should be a proper structured JD for the employee. At the same time, identify the KRAs and KPIs. Nothing else can help the progress of employees except a proper performance management system with a proper reward system and training.

Beyond evaluating employee's current performance, understanding their future capabilities is essential. This is where tools like performance appraisals, skills assessments, and talent mapping come into play. Once it is recognized that an employee has low or moderate potential, it's not a roadblock; it's an opportunity for growth. Rather than seeing it as a limitation, HR should view it as a chance to nurture and develop that potential. Learning and Development programs, Individual Development Plans, Mentorship and Coaching, and Continuous feedback would help.

In my experience across multiple business sectors including Healthcare, Hospitality and Finance, as a executive HRBP, DEI leader, Talent Acquisition leader, the following activities were critical to employee development: 1. Clear business goals 2. Alignment of goals to mission 3. Tools to build skill/competency 4. Personal accountability 5. Transparent performance mgmt 6. Sponsorship and mentorship In my view, the test of your development is mobility and retention. Recognizing and rewarding leaders who import and export skilled and motivated talent accelerates organizational adoption of employee development as an essential business activity.

I think training and development of skill help, some time the employees have the potential but the lack of training for them it’s not enough to develop new career paths , so this it’s very helpful as well as good mentorship , we need to find the better ones to continue make an impact in every area that we want to develop , give employees the opportunity of try new things at job, that could increase productivity as same time career development

Feedback plays a pivotal role, it’s important in terms of coaching and mentoring and aligning the individual to the larger organisational goals and also ensuring their own growth which then motivates them to go the extra mile. However the method of communicating the feedback is also important at the same time, keeping in mind how the individual would take it.

Coaching is such a loosely used term and is often confused with mentoring, counseling and other development / learning models. I think it is very critical to first educate leaders - have a unified understanding of what coaching is. Next is to make the employees experience what coaching is and, if done right, how powerful it can be.

Your emphasis on regular and constructive feedback, coupled with coaching, is crucial for fostering employee growth. Establishing a feedback culture and implementing coaching programs, both internal and external, can significantly contribute to employees’ understanding of their strengths, areas for improvement, and the pursuit of realistic career goals. It’s imperative for HR operations to train managers and create mentoring initiatives to support employees on their developmental journey.

Feedback is priceless! If you really want to see your employees grow, you'll provide timely feedback. This will help them see what they're doing right at the moment as well as what they need to improve on.

Regular, constructive feedback, and coaching are crucial for employee development and career progression. HR should train managers to give effective feedback and coaching, fostering a culture of open communication. Implementing coaching and mentoring programs further supports employees in their career journeys, enhancing overall organizational growth and success.

Create a learning culture. This means making it clear that learning and development are valued and supported by the company. This can be done through things like offering training and development opportunities, providing time for employees to learn, and celebrating employee accomplishments. Build employee career paths. This helps employees visualize their future with the company and shows them what they need to do to reach their career goals. Career paths can be formal or informal, but they should be clear and communicated to employees. Provide regular feedback and coaching. Feedback and coaching can help employees identify their strengths and areas for improvement, and set goals for their development..

Providing a range of opportunities is so important; equally as important is when an employee suggests an idea that might not be a preferred option that this is supported. There are SO many different ways to learn, and each will suit individuals differently and at different points in time. Think about providing opportunities for the employee to implement the learning in the workplace. Include sharing the learning with a team as a way of reinforcing the content and asking questions on the impact of the learning.

Create a rich variety of learning opportunities, incorporating both workshops and accessible online courses, ensuring flexibility to accommodate different learning preferences, and empower team members to cultivate new skills at a pace that aligns with their individual needs, helping maintain an ideal work-life balance. ???

Yes, meet people where they are at and build a road with them towards their goals. While it may be difficult for smaller companies to do that, there are great outsourcing opportunities with companies that specialize in workforce training.

Career paths and plans, including succession planning, are crucial for organizations and employees alike. They provide clear direction for individual growth and development while ensuring the organization has a pipeline of talented leaders ready to fill key roles. This proactive approach fosters stability, promotes talent retention, and enhances overall performance and adaptability in a rapidly changing business landscape.

HR should work with hiring managers while taking into consideration the available budgets and resources in order to facilitate career development for all employees. This involves a structured progression, where an assistant progresses to become an officer, an officer advances to a senior officer, and so forth. I have observed many cases where employees who started in an entry-level positions have risen to manage the organization.

When a company has its HR operations structured, it will have a Compensation and Benefits policy that works in conjunction with the Performance Management process, which, in turn, leads to the Individual Development Plan (IDP) and thus can offer a Career Development Plan to its employees. For this, the integration of HR operations is extremely important.

Establishing clear and transparent career paths and plans is crucial for supporting employee development and career progression effectively. HR operations must collaborate closely with employees and managers to craft personalized career plans tailored to individual aspirations, strengths, and development areas. Facilitating open discussions and providing guidance ensures ongoing alignment between employee aspirations and organizational objectives. This approach promotes employee engagement, retention, and organizational success.

To increase employee retention and knowledge-sharing lost by retiring Baby Boomers, create career paths unique to your brand and industry! This creates a longer employee life cycle with your company, restores faith in junior talent, “I can move up in my current company”, (we know on their first day of employment Gen Zs are already talking and thinking leadership opportunities) and you become an Employer of Choice among active and passive candidates.

Creating a culture of L & D is absolutely the role of HR. That said, the underpinnings of such a culture depend on co-opting and training leaders to seek out and make space for learning & development opportunities for themselves and their direct reports. All too often, Learning & Development programs are thought of as something for individual contributors and front-line managers only. In a true culture of learning, High level/C-suite leaders model self-development and openly communicate how learning has and continues to contribute to their success. HR operations should seek out and deliver L & D opportunities relevant to these high visibility roles in the organization.

This is the most important of all. It’s important to ensure that L & D is an organizational as well as individual priority as it works best when both go hand in hand. This should be fostered from top to down, through feedback, through coaching and through performance management processes.

Make performance reviews about development and what is expected over the next period of performance. Performance reviews traditionally only look backwards, which is only helpful in updating your resume. A performance review that is binary (pass/fail) can then evolve to become a career development meeting that looks to the future. Every performance meeting should include questions about what's next up to expand your resume - even if it's just getting better in your current role. That leads to more development.

Fostering a culture of failing fast, and failing forward is key to learning in a VUCA world. When psychologically safe spaces are created for experimentation, innovation thrives.

Individual career development is owned by the individual. Employees own their career and should take the lead on their development. That said, leaders need to act as coaches to support their development journey, align it with company objectives and offer the infrastructure, tools and resources for that ownership to take flight. It is a shared responsibility and therefore requires open dialogues, meaningful feedback and transparency in company vision. HR is the facilitator of bringing this harmony together.

Empowerment and enabling with the right tools and knowledge. Allowing them to share views freely and coaching for ownership will drive highly skilled and motivated team

Invite the employee to be part of the L&D design. Employee participation and involvement in this particular area will rapidly expand the L&D culture in the organisation.

Employee recognition: rewarding superior performance pushes employees to do more and instills an intrinsic drive for them to be active and willing participants in their development.

Empower people to own their own development journey. Organizations and resources must be the facilitators or growth, learning and development, not the owners or drivers. When people feel empowered and equipped with the tools they need, they can be driven by their own purpose which is far more powerful than any KPI.

Be open to working in completely different ways to meet the need of the employee. What might work for one doesn't necessarily work for another. Maintain a positive relationship with the employee and keep a conversation alive that allows the employee to continually talk about development and career progression. Development needs and interests change so to support be ready to change tack and try something new.