Employees are a crucial part of businesses, and regular opportunities for employees to help them improve and progress is an essential part of a business’s growth and strength.
Offering these opportunities to team members can help improve and home in on their skills, help them develop new abilities, keep them motivated, and can also help them advance their own personal growth, which can be very rewarding.
This piece is going to take a look at how you can support professional development in the workplace and why you should make that move for both your employees and your business.
Treat Them as an Individual
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of supporting professional development in the workplace is to treat everyone uniquely. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, so creating a plan that will benefit them specifically can be very helpful to both them and the business.
Get to know each employee as a person, understand what they enjoy, what they tolerate, where their strengths are, and what their learning styles are. Discuss with them what they think will be beneficial to them in the workplace overall. This can go a long way in making them feel respected and valued and will also allow them to excel in their role.
Try out an employee survey at inpulse.com to help nail down some emotional statistics on each team member so you can support them individually.
Offer Opportunities
Without opportunities to advance in their role, learn new skills, or branch out into other areas, employees can feel stagnant and can sometimes even get complacent. This is completely normal when there are no challenges or opportunities to progress. Provide employees with the chance to develop along routes they believe could be beneficial to them and their role, and discuss with them what they think will maximize their potential and how they can contribute to the business further.
Funded courses are an excellent way to provide opportunities if progression within the company is not possible.
Remove Any Barriers
Barriers are everywhere for employees. Whether it be an out-of-date system that slows them down, no accommodations for personal well-being, or being micromanaged.
One of the best ways to support professional development in the workplace is to remove these barriers as much as possible and give your employees what they need to be their best selves. For some, they might want some time in the day to complete further training; others might excel when they are left to their own devices. Some employees might be able to do incredible things if they have strict structures and procedures removed from their schedules.
Listen to your employees when they tell you what they feel their barriers are and work with them to create something that assists and benefits them.
Supporting professional development in the workplace will always be worthwhile if you look after your employees. The more you put in, the more you will be able to get out.
