How People Development Impacts Productivity

A well-defined People Development program accomplishes two critical objectives.

1.     It helps each employee cultivate the skills, knowledge, and expertise to support their current role and prepare them for future roles along their desired career path.

2.     It can fill critical skills needed to meet the organization’s goals.  These might be specific skills that there may be a shortage of or missing altogether.

7 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Here are some benefits you can realize from investing in people development:

• Increased Engagement

• Improved Productivity

• Improved Talent Recruiting

• Improved Retention

• Reduced Turnover

• Enhanced Culture

• Reduced Skills Gap

People Development Includes Four Key Areas

·        Employee Onboarding.  Providing new hires with the necessary tools and resources needed to help them quickly become productive in their new role. Do not let them flounder from lack of direction.  This quickly zaps their initial enthusiasm.

• Employee Training and Development Plans.  Design a specific plan for each employee that covers their immediate and future development needs.  These plans reflect what’s important to the individual, as well as the organization.

• Employee Performance Management.  Managing an employee’s performance is an important part of making them successful.  This should start with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.  Then set agreed to goals, objectives, deliverables and how each of these will be measured.  Lastly, consistently provide feedback on what they are doing well and where they can improve.

·        Career Planning.  To keep your employees motivated and engaged, leaders need to map out a structured plan for growth and advancement opportunities for each employee within the organization (or outside it).  What is the next step for this employee?  More responsibility?  Challenging projects?  Promotion?  How can you help them?  Plan out their next 2-3 steps and the actions needed, from you as the leader and the individual, to accomplish these goals.

“Soft” Skills

Don’t just focus on the “hard skills”.  Make sure there is adequate investment in developing the “soft skills”. Not only do these skills become the foundation for success, but they also bolster your organizational culture.

• Communication

• Empathy

• Creativity

• Critical Thinking

• Emotional Intelligence

• Conflict Resolution

• Adaptability

• Active Listening

• Teamwork

Bottom Line

Employee development is one of the most important tools a company has to be able to boost both its productivity and its growth. By developing motivated and knowledgeable employees, you will drive an improved level of productivity.