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While much of our attention is focused on our own career development, paying attention to employees’ career development pays off for leaders, followers, and the organization.
Here are some of the benefits of focusing on others’ career development.
- Greater retention of valued employees. Employees see this as a benefit and believe that the leader/organization cares about their progress.
- Allows for better staff planning. Developing your own skilled workforce allows you to plan replacements ahead of time.
- Enhancement of your reputation. Companies are being rated on how much they focus on employee and leader development—you become one of the “great places to work.”
- Building team capacity. You create a more talented and skilled workforce.
- Increased communication. Better leader-employee communication results from career discussions and allows the opportunity to align employee and organizational goals.
- Catalyst for developing better personnel systems. In order to assess employee capacity and development requires good performance and capacity assessment.
Some organizations worry that developing employees will lead them to leave for better opportunities (“why develop them if they’re just going to leave?”), but this is offset by enhanced skillset of your team members and your improved reputation as an employer.
For Development
Think of ways that you can build career development into your organization. Schedule regular one-on-ones to discuss career development. Realize the opportunities this will create to have serious conversations with employees about their strengths, targeted areas for development, and their career aspirations.
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