Benefits and Importance of Employee Development

The job market nowadays is more competitive than ever. Job-hopping is a growing trend amongst millennials and since employees now broaden their horizons and knowledge, they are able to change careers with ease.

Employees are focused on their professional development and growth, and if their current employer is not fulfilling their thirst for knowledge thirst, they will leave them to find someone who will. A good benefits package goes beyond a high salary, employees want to keep up with the fast-changing world we live in right now and they’re constantly looking for challenges and opportunities to be better, to grow both professionally and personally.

As an employer, if you have skilled and productive employees you certainly don’t want to let go of them; but if they’re giving you their best, you should give back your best as well. Unfortunately, employee retention is one of the main challenges organizations face nowadays, and it’s quite expensive to replace an employee, but it’s way less expensive to develop an employee development plan that’ll benefit your employees and your organization at the same time.

What is Employee Development?

Employee Development (or Professional Development) is a process in where employers support their employees’ career development and take them through professional training and coaching to improve their skills, competencies, and knowledge.

Even though an employee development plan requires an investment, not just financially but also in effort and time, it’ll surely pay off in the near future. Prioritizing your employee development plan ensures that your employees keep evolving, getting better according to market and industry trends. Supporting your team members with this plan doesn’t mean they have to learn a required skill set for a certain position or role, it’s more about nurturing their professional path and broaden their opportunities.

If you think about it, there are certain industries where professionals have to retake certification exams every few years to keep working, guaranteeing the people they work with that their skills are up to date, so you could say they never stop learning. Why shouldn’t your employees keep learning too? 

Most young workers seek this continuing education on their own, but adding an employee development plan to your organization and providing them with the knowledge they look for right inside their company is quite a win-win-win.

Why is Employee Development Important?

There are several benefits of a career development plan, but ultimately you’ll assure an engaged workforce with top-notch knowledge and skills. When employees are accurately trained and they’re constantly updating their knowledge, they are able to deliver high-quality performance and top customer experience. 

A good employee development plan also shows you are willing to invest in your people, in building up your company culture, and add point system of the employees, which is something people will appreciate and reciprocate with increased loyalty.

Benefits of Employee Development

1. Increase Employee Engagement

Engaged employees are loyal by definition, but they’re also the most productive employees and usually go the extra mile in their roles. Though employee engagement can be increased through various strategies, an employee development plan plays a huge role in workforce management to help create a more engaged workforce. When employees have a career development opportunity, they get involved in the daily operations of their organization, they’re more hands-on regarding what keeps the company moving forward, and become more optimistic about their possibilities to succeed.

Engaged employees feel connected to their job, ergo, they’re more focused and perform better, which means better productivity for your organization.

2. Improve Employee Performance

Poor performance is often a result of employees not being fully aware of how they are supposed to do their jobs. Investing in employee development from your bottom line will cascade upwards a boost that will result in better performance. Through employee development, you can give your team members the skills they need to improve their day-to-day work and tasks and improve their outcomes. Employee performance not only revolves around the employer or the company's employee policies but also depends on the employee's devotion to excelling in their field. For instance, an employee completing their OSHA 30 certification will directly result in an employee performance upgrade.

If companies want to remain competitive in their industry, they should continue to outperform their competition. An employee development plan can help an organization meet its performance expectations. 

3. Handle Unexpected Situations

Businesses today experience constant change, which brings a lot of challenges that, if faced correctly, could become surprising opportunities. This is why it is essential that your employees are able to handle unexpected situations in a quick and effective manner.

If you invest in developing your employees and prepare them for different situations, they’ll become more adaptable and, therefore, they’ll be able to improvise solutions under pressure. Less skilled employees would just freeze and accept whatever is happening. 

4. Save Money because of Employee Retention

Investing in employee development programs is important to ensure your employees can do whatever they must to keep the company working. But employee development programs can also save you big money in the long run.

The cost of replacing one employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary, being conservative that is, because it takes a new employee nearly a year to be fully onboard and perform their job as an employee with more seniority. With this data, it’s up to you to decide where would you rather invest money. 

5. Train Future Leaders

Organizations with strong leadership show a 37% rise in revenue per employee and +9% in gross profit margin, according to the report of Bersin by Deloitte - High-Impact Leadership. The New Leadership Maturity Model. 

When you develop employee development programs, you have the ability to choose and train those employees that have leadership potential. You’re able to push the right people into leadership roles, people that have been developing loyalty and engagement towards your organization and that will work hard to see it thrive. By investing in employee development now, you are investing in the future of your organization.

6. Attract Great Talent

Every company is as good as its employees, so getting great talent in your organization is a top priority. A strong employee development plan will help you attract top talent because people that are good at what they do will feel more drawn to organizations that are willing to invest in them.

Employee development should be included in your benefits package, not just to hook your candidates, but to show the job market you are a competitive company looking to hire people that are willing to give their best for you. It shows that you, as the employer, care about the people who work for you.

Making employee development a crucial part of your company culture will benefit your business in more ways than one. Remember that having a Performance Management Tool will help you increase employee satisfaction while keeping track of your team’s productivity and review if there are any blockers that should be removed. Let Hirebook help you reach your goals and take your company to the next level of success!