Businesses play an important role in sustaining the economy of their local economy. But with such a competitive market, even small local businesses have a hard time keeping their employees for years. Hiring and retaining talented staff is imperative to ensure the success of the business. However, employees are not only looking for a good salary.
It goes without saying that employees are also looking for a good working environment and perks and benefits. Considering that, employers should recognize the value of effective employee development. Creating such a plan is possible even for small local businesses with a limited budget.
An employee development plan is primarily designed to help you groom the top talents for leadership, meet your employees’ ambitions, and realize your business goals. Here are some easy ways to adopt those concepts and promote good employee development.
Encourage coaching and mentoring
Regardless of your local business, coaching and mentoring programs are excellent ways to support employee development and growth. Whether you’re the manager or the business owner, you must work together with your people like a coach or mentor. Take the chance to pass on your relevant knowledge and skills to your people.
You can start by establishing a positive workplace culture. Promote good communication in which you and your employees are not afraid to seek help from each other. Also, to make coaching and mentoring easier, you can ask your employees simple questions like what they want to learn more about their roles or what obstacles they’re facing.
It’ll be great if you can create a thorough training plan for your employees. Ideally, the training should be practiced on new hires and current employees to promote career growth.
Develop the soft skills
As the modern workplace evolves, soft skills are getting more recognition from many businesses and organizations. Today, soft skills have become even more important. These non-technical and personal traits can include communication, delegation, time management, and active listening. Providing your employees with educational and training resources for soft skill development helps make them smarter and more productive workers.
Experts in emotional intelligence suggest hiring a professional to teach your team non-violent communication and read body language. Improving communication may not look as crucial as creating a financial report or pivot table, but it can greatly benefit your team’s efficiency.
Offer essential and unwanted benefits
Another effective approach to promote employee development and retention is offering great perks and benefits. The most common benefits offered by companies include paid time offs (illness, vacation, and personal time off), health and dental insurance, and retirement savings plans. Some also offer various coverage or protection such as life insurance, worker’s compensation, and injury or disability insurance. If you’re looking to offering any of these, be sure to seek professional guidance from a life insurance provider or a personal injury attorney.
You can offer other amazing perks on top of your staff’s salary and benefits package. These include remote work options, flexible work schedules, employee discounts, paid parental leave, and volunteer time off. Not only can such benefits and perks make your current employees happy and feel valued, but you can also attract more talented people into your business.
Promote personal development
Supporting your employees’ personal development is also essential to keep them productive and happy at work. Remember that they are also humans with emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges. A holistic employee development strategy can help improve professionally and personally.
For physical health, encourage your employees to have complete breaks or rest after their working hours. Showing them the importance of self-care can make them see that you genuinely care for your people. You can also arrange seminars or provide resources about healthy relationships, work-life balance, and personal finance, which promote intellectual growth.
Moreover, achieving emotional balance is also helpful in boosting employee engagement and satisfaction. Have a personal conversation with your employees at least once a month and check if their needs are met in the work environment. Ask about any of their struggles or their feelings about their job. Make sure their needs are heard, acknowledged, and validated.
By helping your staff in their professional and personal development goals, you can eventually boost employee retention. Listen to what your employees need and want, and assess if you can accommodate any of them. A proactive approach towards employee growth won’t just benefit your staff, but your business too. You can expect more productivity and better performance that can drive your business towards success.
