Are you confident your employees are satisfied at work?

Do they feel valued and invested in? How is the employee experience at your company?

Not only is it essential to survey your employees to know and understand the actual responses to these kinds of questions, but it’s equally important to take action on their responses and to continually improve the employee experience.

One key aspect of employee experience you can’t afford to overlook is employee development.

Ninety-four percent of employees say they would stay at their company longer if it invested in their career development. Considering this high percentage and the time, productivity, and cost of losing an employee, it’s clear that you can’t afford to overlook (or ignore) employee development. 

Employee development and experience 

Ask yourself if you focus on developing your employees and is there an actual plan or system your employees can refer to. Employee development is so much more than just training your employees. 

Checklist of opportunities for employee development 

The following 10 checklist items will get you on track with providing development opportunities for your employees. 

1. Regular coaching and feedback

Withholding feedback hurts both you and your employee. Ask employees how they prefer to receive constructive feedback, and then deliver it. 

2. On-the-job training 

Make sure your employees have the training necessary to be confident and effective in their roles. 

3. Don't ignore soft skills 

Soft skills are the traits that make someone a good employee. Be sure to provide career coaching on these skills while being careful to not let personal preferences stifle an employee’s personality, point of view, or different approach to a situation. 

4. Mentorship with company leaders

This is a quick, yet meaningful, way to make employees feel cared for and invested in. Pairing an employee with a different company leader will provide exposure to different perspectives, experiences, and management styles. 

5. Cross-department training 

Exposing employees to different areas of the business makes them well-rounded while giving them a better understanding of the business. Plus, you never know what a fresh set of eyes may uncover. 

7. Industry/skill conference

These types of conferences are full of actionable learnings from subject matter experts. They’re also a great way to network and learn from professionals in similar capacities at other companies.  

8. Employee recognition

Employees who do not feel adequately recognized are two times as likely to quit in the next year. Gallup recommends frequent employee recognition that aligns with the purpose, brand, and culture of the company. 

9. Online courses

Training doesn’t have to break the bank. Thousands of online courses are available for every industry and skill on websites for free or at a discount for entire companies.

10. Increased responsibilities

As your employees excel in their roles, provide them with additional responsibilities to learn and grow.

Use these as you work toward building a formal, guided employee development program or enlisting the assistance of an employee training and development company.

How important is developing your employees?

You might ask isn’t it up to the employee to take initiative and propel their career forward? Well of course there has to be initiative and desire from the employee. However, the company can (and should) play a large part in helping guide, support, and amplify this.

The stages of employee experience

In the Ultimate Guide to Employee Experience, there are five key stages of the employee experience: 

Employee development is at the core of the employee experience. It is ongoing without having a set time to it. Every employee will vary in their rate of skill development and job responsibility, but it’s up to the company, especially the manager, to help nurture and guide them through.

Employee development impacts employee engagement

There are an endless number of employee engagement studies and statistics online. What do these studies say about employee development and how it relates to employee engagement? 

Bob Nelson analyzed 3 million employee surveys and found the second most significant driver of employee engagement is career development and the number one reason employees feel held back from learning is because they don’t have the time.

Managers are the biggest influencer of an employee’s workplace happiness, frustration, or downright misery. Thus, the manager-employee relationship is the most important relationship to build and nurture. Managers should make time for their employees to learn, stress the importance of continued learning, and make this a talking point in their one-on-one meetings. This will help employees feel empowered to invest in their personal growth and learning each week. 

Employee engagement impacts employee and business performance

Highly-engaged teams show 21 percent greater profitability while achieving a 10 percent increase in customer ratings and 20 percent increase in sales. Therefore, engaged employees directly impact the bottom line of a company.

Employees that are highly engaged at work are 87 percent more likely to stay at their companies than their less engaged counterparts. Over $11 billion is lost annually due to employee turnover, which means that there are huge cost, time, and resource savings in retaining your employees.

Conclusion

Don’t delay in growing and investing in your employees. As you do this, your employees will grow and progress within your organization. When this isn’t the case, it can be disappointing to see a loyal employee spread their wings and explore new adventures elsewhere. 

However, when this does happen, be satisfied in knowing you and your company played a key role in helping them achieve their potential and accomplish their career ambitions. It’s also rewarding to look back and see the impact the employee had on your company as they grew and developed there.

Check out G2's extensive breakdown of training and development companies to help you stay on top of the best opportunities for your employees' increased learning, development, and growth.