Entrepreneurs, business executives, supervisors, and human resources personnel spend a great deal of time developing an efficient hiring process to select the best candidates. They evaluate the needs of the business and cultivate a list of educational, professional, and personal criteria for each position. Then they find the best marketing mediums and spend days or even weeks screening applications and scheduling interviews to narrow down their options to the most appropriate candidates.
While executing these steps is vital to hiring skilled professionals, investing in their continued development is crucial to your company’s reputation, productivity, competitiveness, and success. As a person’s current education, skills, and experience will only take them so far, it’s in the best interest of business owners to make employee development a priority.
What Is employee development?
Employee development is the process of improving employee knowledge, skills, and abilities within their profession to help them perform their jobs (or the jobs they wish to fulfill) more effectively. While it requires a significant investment of company resources, the outcome of better-equipped employees has the potential to reap significant advantages.
Benefits of employee development
When an effective employee development strategy is successfully integrated into the company culture, it benefits the company immensely. Below is a closer look at some of the advantages of investing in your staff’s professional growth.
Improve workplace morale and job satisfaction
While some employees leave their jobs for a higher salary, others move on because they’re unhappy with their place of employment. They feel trapped, stagnated, undervalued, unappreciated, and at times, dispensable. These negative emotions bleed into the work environment, their performance, and ultimately productivity.
Having high turnover rates isn’t ideal for any business. Not only is it expensive, but it can slow company progression and ruin your reputation. Investing in employee development enables your team to do their jobs efficiently with passion and confidence. They feel more empowered when they have the support of the company and the necessary resources to reach their fullest professional potential. As a result, they work harder and remain loyal.
Better performance
Most people don’t take on a job with the intention of performing poorly. They understand that their performance is tied to their job security and satisfaction. Ultimately, they want to put their best foot forward to continue excelling in their positions and assisting others in meeting company goals. However, as the landscape of business and the advancement of technologies continue to evolve, the value and relevance of an employee’s education, skills, and experience decline.
When an employee can take advantage of development opportunities, they can sharpen existing skills and acquire new ones conducive to performing their jobs accurately.
Increased profitability
Although many factors contribute to a company’s profitability, your employees play a significant role. Their willingness and ability to perform their jobs effectively and provide quality service to your customers can make or break your organization. When you focus your efforts on enhancing your employees’ skills, it increases your potential to generate revenue.
Employee development can also increase company profitability by expanding their market or area of expertise. For example, suppose a medical director offers resources such as online tutoring, study guides, and MCAT practice questions to assist employees that want to advance their careers by going to medical school. Once those employees pass the MCAT and complete their medical school program, they can move into higher ranking positions to provide more services to your patients.
You could go from servicing ten patients to thirty or expand your practice into other health specialties like pediatrics, women’s health, or geriatric care. Naturally, the more quality healthcare services you can offer patients, the more business your practice will receive.
Employees are a company’s greatest asset. Without their hard work and dedication, reaching your company goals would be impossible. As such, business owners and company leaders are encouraged to invest in their teams’ continued education and growth. Employee development strategies work to boost morale, improve performance, and increase profitability, all of which are ingredients a successful business needs.