Employee Development: Five Questions HR needs to ask itself!
In today’s dynamic and competitive world, career development opportunities are a critical factor in employee engagement and retention. The below image of a summary of the recent study by PWC that shows opportunity for career progression ranks first in the list as an attractive employer.
Employees are more likely to stay with an organisation that demonstrates a commitment to their professional development. When an employee sees that their employer has invested in their growth, it instils a sense of loyalty and reduces employee turnover. This not only saves the organisation recruitment costs but also maintains a level of institutional knowledge that is invaluable.?
Other than non-tangible benefits, a recent PwC study offered concrete proof that investing in employee experience yields financial returns. Development opportunities are ranked the third contributor in savings, as a percentage of annual revenues. It has generated more than 1.5% of annual revenue as savings to organisations.
Hence, career growth and development is the pivotal way in achieving the cornerstone of success for both individuals and organisations.
Career Development and Growth can be divided into Five aspects that need to be worked on individually by any organisation.
1. Hansei
Hansei is a Japanese word which means self-reflection. Any improvement journey has to start with learnings and reflections from the past. The introspective process involves identifying the strengths, weaknesses, interests and aspirations. Starting with knowing oneself would serve as a solid foundation for setting meaning and goals for carving a career path. HR systems should use Hansei as a starting point for any career development and growth avenues. Hansei should primarily follow two rules.
Rule 1: Play on strengths
One has to understand that in this world of more than 8 billion people, you will certainly have many weaknesses compared to others. The entire life would be insufficient to gain skills and competencies to even cover 1% of your weaknesses.
Help individual identify and make a list of the key skills & competencies they are good at. Ask of incidences where they were appreciated by a colleague or leader for a work. It is very important to keep and grow these competencies.
Rule 2: Use Pareto principles on weaknesses.
The Pareto Principle, named after economist Vilfredo Pareto, specifies that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes.
Check for these 20% weaknesses that would be a major roadblock for their aspirations and organisation objectives. Make a list!
This will help employees in having a clear view of themselves compared to the other colleagues.
2. Clear & Objective-Driven Career Growth Path
Rather than leaving the career progression up to chance, a well-designed clear path of career growth helps team members understand “where they can reach” and “how to get there”. This growth Path should be based on objectives and use an unbiased & transparent scoring process.?
?A?2018 LinkedIn Learning report?found that?94% of employees would stay with their company longer if it invested in their careers.?On the other hand,?employees who are unsure of what role may come next or what skills they need to attain for advancement are more likely to become frustrated in their positions and seek out employment elsewhere.
This would help the employees to allocate their efforts to get maximum impact. Also, there would be a sense of fair game within the team avoiding dis-satisfactions resulting from unfair practices.
3. Feedback - Best Way to Help!
Feedback is an essential tool for honing soft skills like?leadership and communication. Having an ongoing dialogue on feedback encourages individuals and their teams to continue developing their skills to boost performance.
Over time, the term “feedback” has taken on some negative connotations. Unfortunately, people only give feedback when things get wrong. Think of of time we have written to an airline company when we had a really comfortable flight and delicious food, Never!?
Companies can avoid these negative feedback associations by creating a culture where periodic and continuous peer-to-peer feedback is the norm.?
For instance, suppose a management consultant presents a solution approach for a project. This approach received negative remarks and the data presented was questionable by the client team resulting in a total mess. Before the client team even left the room, the Manager immediately blamed the consultant and demanded that they meet later that day for feedback. This will demoralise and embarrass the consultant. The consultant would not be in a position to digest the feedback in this stressful situation. Alternatively, if the manager allowed regrouping at a later point to offer their feedback to ensure that consultants check their slides first with the client team before the presentation day. The consultant would take the feedback constructively and improve on it.?
Apart from this situational feedback, the organisation should have structured peer-to-peer feedback that helps the team to improve. The role of the manager is the key to this mechanism. Many successful companies have a two-way feedback system in which both the manager and his team have to give feedback about each other that is linked to the performance management system.
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Does just giving feedback help? The answer is No!?
The above model visualised by the author shows it as a closed-loop model. Every Manager or leader needs to track the improvement against the provided feedback and follow-up. Also, they may be required to mentor the team to improvise.?
4. Cross-functional exposure
In an interview with Economic Times published in Sept 2023, Anuradha Razdan, Executive Director and Vice President HR, Hindustan Unilever how she worked in different departments such as sales, marketing, and supply chain teams throughout her 25 years of career that helped her become a leader.
During the same interview, Piyush Khattar of Decathlon Sports India said that his company is committed to cross-functional job rotation that it calls a “zig-zag career trajectory”
Similarly, State Bank of India (SBI) ensure that each of its employees has worked for different departments across the organisation. Any leader from SBI's Top management team would have exposure to working with Branches, Compliance, HR, International Banking, Marketing etc.
Leadership position demands the business level perspective for which one needs to understand different aspects of the organisation. This kind of HR polices not only helps organisations in grooming employees but also facilitates employees to find a function that suits their skill set.?
Cross-functional exposure helps in career development and growth through:
5. Promote & sponsor continuous education
Pearson Skills Outlook report 2023 says “Nearly 88% Indian workers believe they need to keep relearning and training throughout their careers to stay up to date and remain relevant and attractive to employers”
Not everything can be learned inside the organisation. It is very important that employees capture the new learnings and up-skill them. These could be through internal learning modules or external avenues such as conferences, colleges or online courses.?
Deloitte, a global professional services firm, places a premium on education and skill-building. Through its Deloitte University, the company offers a range of courses covering leadership, industry-specific knowledge, and professional skills. Apart from this, it allocates budgets that reimburse the course fees that individuals spend on learning outside of Deloitte University.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) offers TCS Ignite program offers customised training programs, including advanced courses in digital technologies.?
TCS also provides financial assistance to employees pursuing higher education, aligning their career goals with organisational objectives.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) a diversified MNC has built the L&T Leadership Development Academy that offers a range of programs, including postgraduate diplomas and executive education, to nurture leadership skills. This empowers employees to take on greater responsibilities and contribute to the company's growth.
Wipro a leading global information technology company, places a strong emphasis on learning and development. The Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) offers education and training, allowing employees to pursue higher education while gaining practical experience.
Every employer/ HR team should focus on these Five aspects and check for their existence & effectiveness by asking themselves these questions.
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