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Behind every successful business are highly skilled, engaged, and productive employees. While it may seem that investing in employee development is time-consuming and expensive, it offers great benefits to any organization. Why should you consider investing in employee development? There are many reasons why you might want to include employee development in your next company budget.
Even if you’re running a small business, employee development programs still make sense. Because you have less flexibility in terms of labor and workforce, having employees who are able to multitask is highly important. Just think about an instance when one of your staff takes a leave of absence. There has to be someone who can do what he does or else, your daily operations are compromised, affecting the quality of service your company provides. Strategic employee development benefits small businesses in such a way that it helps them cultivate a strong, well-rounded workforce that is able to address their broad needs.
What about the funding for employee development? For small businesses, this can be a problem for sure. Fortunately, small companies can leverage financing services such as personal loans for business to support not only development programs but other inevitable expenses of running a business.
First, it is a surefire way to attract and retain great talents. Lack of growth opportunities is listed as one of the top five reasons why employees leave their jobs. With a strategic employee development plan in place, you are equipping your staff with advanced skills and knowledge that will allow them to perform their job well and at the same time, prepare them for higher roles. Consequently, it makes employees feel more valued at work, lowering their chance of leaving your company.
Second, it boosts your company reputation. Things like free or subsidized training attract not only great talents but also more customers. Your business identity is essential in building and protecting brand reputation. Anything good you do for your employees, it makes people (consumers) more willing to do business with you.
Third, employee development programs can spark innovations and boost performance. When you feed your employees with new knowledge that deepen their understanding of their roles, they are more likely to contribute innovative ideas. Such ideas can ultimately lead to sales growth and higher revenues.
How To Implement A Strategic Employee Development Program
Make it a win-win situation
When offering free training or sponsoring education, limit them to the courses that will benefit both your business and your employees. For example, if you’re running a retail company, offer educational programs like business management, budgeting, sales, and the like. Offering irrelevant training programs would benefit only the employee and not your company.
Conduct core competency testing
Regardless if you have sufficient or limited fund, you don’t want to waste your time and resources training employees who could not succeed due to personal limitations. Tests should help you identify your employees’ strengths and limitations, know their areas of interests and gauge their potential for leadership characteristics and roles. Other things that you can measure through core competency testing are their work ethics, behavior in the workplace, and core values which are all important factors to consider when determining who among your employees are worth investing in.
Employees are the lifeblood of any business. The key to a successful business is ensuring that its employees are fully equipped with the skills and knowledge to perform their duties well. This is where employee development programs come in. It may seem like an added cost but the benefits far outweigh the expenses. To make strategic investments in employee development, it is important to focus on programs that will benefit both the employees and the organization. This may include limiting course or training offerings to the skill sets that are relevant to the employees’ roles. Additionally, conducting core competency tests let you identify who among your employees have the best potential and will contribute more to your company’s success.
