Why do employees need to be developed?
Fifty-five percent of workers in the U.S. feel that they must further develop their competencies to be successful in their current and future jobs, but only 21 percent said they have received company-provided development opportunities for these necessary competencies in the past 5 years.
Employee Development will address this skills gap and attract, retain, and engage employees. As it is vital to employee engagement, many companies use employee development plans to grow their team members both personally and professionally. This provides them the tools they need to be successful not only in their current role, but in future roles that allow them to contribute to an organization that is scaling.
Intentional, well-orchestrated development initiatives help organizations to strengthen the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their employees, which leads to greater capacity, productivity and improved morale. Developing employees sends the positive message that you value them and care about their success. These programs are also critical to attracting and retaining top talent as employees desire personal and professional growth and mastery of their profession or skills.
Developing from the Beginning
"I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies." — Lawrence Bossidy, Former CEO, Allied Signal (Honeywell), former COO of GE and author
At every stage of an employee's life cycle, the employee needs to be stretched, grown and developed; and the life cycle starts with onboarding. As the saying goes: first impressions are everything. Employees not properly onboarded become disengaged and may not feel like part of the organization. This can lead to a lack of trust in the organization, and eventually to employee turnover. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics has found that the U.S. voluntary turnover rate is 23.4 percent annually. It is generally estimated that replacing an employee costs a business one-half to five times that employee's annual salary. Translated in the following scenario; if 25 percent of a business' workforce leaves and the average pay is $70,000, it could cost a 100-person firm between $875,000 and $8.750 million a year to replace employees. When an organization factors in the cost of hiring a new employee and the average cost of training, the case to ensure new hires are properly onboarded couldn't be stronger.
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