The Development Dividend: Growing Your People is the Best Way to Win in the Talent Pool and the Marketplace

One of our fundamental human needs is to feel we are growing, utilizing our strengths, and making progress. However, only 5% of people feel they are reaching their full potential at work. A recent Microsoft study found that 76% of people would remain with their employer longer if they were provided with more opportunities for learning and growth; however, 55% believe that changing companies is the most effective way to develop their skills. This is a tremendous loss of value for organizations, as their people feel under-leveraged , become disengaged, and eventually leave.?

Contrary to career models of the past where people completed formal education, secured a job, and coasted along indefinitely, today’s longer lifespans and evolving business landscape require ongoing upskilling, learning, and adaptability throughout our careers. Millennials and Gen Z are acutely aware of this and are hyper-focused on ensuring their time with your organization is worthwhile. The moment they detect a lack of growth or progression, they're quick to move on.?

As workplace expert Heather E. McGowan aptly puts it, "Learning is the new pension." Investing in employee development not only enables them to add more value to your organization today but makes them more valuable in the marketplace in the future as well. Here are some low/no-cost ways to get started:

Learning in the Flow of Work?

Learning in the flow of work is a highly effective, engaging, and cost-efficient approach that integrates real-time coaching and feedback into everyday tasks, whether in-person or virtual. This method allows employees to immediately integrate and apply new knowledge to boost performance. In distributed work environments, where spontaneous interactions are limited, real-time coaching becomes even more crucial for skill application. AI-based tools such as Poised offer insights into meeting dynamics, enhancing feedback quality. Feedback from managers, mentors, and peers provides practical, just-in-time support. Utilizing structured feedback frameworks like the After Action Review (AAR), which assesses successes, challenges, and areas for improvement, further refines the learning process, making it more targeted and impactful. This approach cultivates a culture of continuous learning, development, and candor while driving trust and growth at both individual and organizational levels.

Reverse Mentoring?

I am a strong advocate for reverse mentoring, recognizing that each generation holds valuable insights and unique experiences that, when shared, can greatly enrich others across generational lines. This exchange not only fosters mutual learning but also bridges generational divides, cultivating a more cohesive, inclusive, and trusting work environment. Several years ago, a client was implementing a new digital collaboration platform. Many of the senior leaders were unfamiliar with the technology and hesitant to embrace the new ways of working. To address this, we established a reverse mentoring program that paired these leaders with junior staff who were adept in the new technology. This approach provided a triple benefit: senior leaders received personalized, white-glove knowledge transfer; junior staff gained professional confidence and developed leadership skills; and because the mentor-mentee pairs were assigned randomly, the program helped mitigate unconscious bias that can arise when senior leaders organically select whom they mentor. Having a specific focus for the mentoring relationship added structure and accountability, ensuring a mutually beneficial experience for each participant.

Apprenticeship Programs

Apprenticeship programs are highly effective for developing and engaging employees while simultaneously boosting productivity. These programs provide a structured pathway for people to upskill by shadowing experienced colleagues, participating in real projects, and actively contributing to the team's output. A few years ago, I led a learning and development team that launched an apprenticeship program, allowing employees from various departments to allocate part of their time to shadowing our team and working on projects with them. This enabled participants to build cross-functional relationships, acquire new skills, and contribute additional bandwidth to our team, reducing the need to hire additional staff for those projects.

In virtual settings, the apprenticeship model can be adapted by encouraging senior employees to involve junior staff in relevant emails, Slack channels, calls, and meetings. This provides invaluable observation and learning experiences, allowing junior team members to gain insights and develop skills in a dynamic, real-world context.

Provide Interesting Problems to Solve

People don’t decide to stay with your company for free lunch and dry cleaning. They stay for the opportunity to solve important problems and be part of something exciting. When employees are given the chance to tackle important challenges in collaborative, co-creative ways, they experience greater satisfaction, engagement, and productivity. Organizations, in turn, benefit from increased innovation, better customer experience, and reduced turnover. There are various ways to implement this, such as forming cross-functional Tiger Teams to address challenging business problems or running Tour of Duty programs, where employees can join specific projects for a set period. It can even be as straightforward as how a leader frames the work for their team—connecting the dots, articulating the problem to be solved, and inviting the team to devise the path forward. These approaches enable employees to leverage their current skills, acquire new ones, collaborate across functions, and make meaningful contributions to the business.

Delegate for Development?

Delegating tasks as developmental opportunities can be a powerful tool for both employee growth and managerial effectiveness. When managers approach new projects with the mindset of assigning them as stretch opportunities to team members who want to grow in specific areas, it not only empowers employees but also alleviates the manager’s workload, allowing them to focus on leadership responsibilities and avoid burnout. Stretch assignments that challenge employees to step outside their comfort zones, apply their skills in new contexts, and develop competencies beyond their current roles are essential for democratizing development across the organization—not just for high performers or those on leadership paths. To implement this effectively, managers can proactively identify and share these stretch opportunities, while also offering the necessary support through mentorship, resources, and constructive feedback. I experienced this firsthand as a junior consultant working alongside an inspiring senior woman. She proposed that we switch roles on a project, positioning me as the lead while she took on a supportive role. This simple yet powerful gesture ignited a surge of motivation, strategic thinking, and a strong bias for action within me. Knowing that the responsibility was mine to bear, yet having her unwavering support if needed, I began to truly step into the role of a leader. I constantly challenged myself to consider how a leader would speak, act, and engage with the client. This mindset shift not only transformed my perception of myself as a leader but also drove me to embody leadership in my actions from that point forward.

Transparency

While it may sound basic, when leaders make it a point to openly share information and connect the dots for their employees, it effectively provides them with a mini MBA, deepening their understanding of the business, its operations, and how they can contribute to it. Every employee should have a clear understanding of how the business operates, including its revenue streams, key competitors, target customers, goals, and vision, as well as how they can contribute personally. Additionally, employees should have visibility into the goals and operations of other departments, business units, and teams. This broader perspective helps them recognize interdependencies, identify potential collaborations, and explore cross-selling opportunities. Armed with this knowledge, employees are empowered to think and act like owners, making informed decisions that drive the company’s success. Leaders can share this information during Town Halls or make it readily accessible via the company intranet. Managers can further enhance this understanding by inviting representatives from other departments to observe their team meetings or by hosting guest speakers from various teams to share insights, fostering a deeper sense of cross-functional awareness and collaboration.

See Beyond the Job Description

Organizations that view their employees within the constraints of the bullets in a job description are limiting their potential and forcing them to play small. The result? The organization loses out on creativity, innovation, and employees’ desire to go above and beyond, ultimately leading to lower engagement and high turnover rates. It's no wonder so many people are seeking side hustles and opportunities outside of their day jobs that allow them to apply their skills, explore their interests, and continue to grow. Managers can facilitate this switch by using one-on-one meetings to engage in authentic conversations with their team members, building connections on a personal level. Understanding what motivates them and who they are beyond their professional roles is crucial. For instance, do they coach sports on the weekends, write or create content as a side passion? Are they teaching themselves to code? These diverse skills, interests, and talents can be leveraged within your organization.

Internal Marketplaces

Mastercard is one company that has taken a people-centric approach to talent management with the launch of its internal talent marketplace powered by Gloat . The innovative platform provides employees with democratized access opportunities for developing their careers within Mastercard. By redeploying people where their skills were needed internally, Mastercard avoided laying off any employees during the pandemic. With the platform's ability to connect employees across geographies and business units, it also fosters collaboration and breaks down silos within the organization. I can also envision the marketplace facilitating job shadowing opportunities for individuals eager to learn new skills from others on the platform.

Job crafting

Yale and Wharton professor Amy Wrzesniewski 's seminal work around job crafting has demonstrated how minor tweaks can transform a mundane job into a fulfilling and meaningful experience. This can include changes in responsibilities, tasks, or who employees interact with. I had the opportunity to put this into practice a few years ago while leading a new team. I worked with the team to personalize their roles so that they could be most successful. In my first one-on-one with each person, I asked them about their goals, interests, and what they enjoyed most about their work. I also asked what they would change about their jobs if they had the chance. I discovered some team members were not utilizing their strengths to the fullest, while others were bored due to over-indexing on theirs. And some simply wanted to try something new. So, together we matched the skills, experience, and preferred areas of growth of each team member with the needs of the business, and as a result, we saw a huge uptick in productivity, motivation, and engagement.?

Peer Coaching

While traditional mentoring facilitates the transfer of knowledge from an expert to a learner, peer coaching emphasizes collaboration between colleagues to enhance self-awareness and drive personal growth. This approach empowers employees to take charge of their own development, gain diverse perspectives, and engage in a continuous feedback loop. For instance, in a marketing team, a seasoned content strategist might collaborate with a newer team member who excels in social media analytics. Through peer coaching, they exchange expertise: the strategist hones their writing and storytelling skills, while the newer member offers insights on data-driven content performance and analytics tools. This reciprocal learning model not only broadens skill sets but also strengthens team relationships and fosters a culture of collaboration.

Which of these approaches are you going to try? Let me know in the comments below.