Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 09:30 am
Hired the perfect new candidate? Like it or not, the process doesn’t begin and end with the signing of contracts. Nowadays, the demands on employees are dynamic and ever-changing — as are those on employers. This means that as well as their monthly pay packet, staff members rightfully expect to receive continual investment in their professional and personal development.
The business that fails to invest in its people is usually the business that does just that — fails. Without development opportunities, employees are less engaged, less productive, and more likely to exit their roles, incurring high rehiring fees and a rotating door of leaving staff. This is hardly conducive to a successful working environment — so, what’s the solution?
Your organisation needs to go the extra mile to invest in staff development. Here are four of our top recommendations for building a well-rounded workforce that propels your business to new heights.
Diversity and inclusion training
The key to creating a balanced, productive team is to invest in all aspects of their personal development — not only those oriented towards hard skills. Cooperative working also requires soft skills, such as teamwork, compromise, and effective communication. But in order to foster those competencies across a diverse workforce, your employees need to be able to understand one another and be accepting of what makes them different.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes have recently experienced a surge in demand. Through compassionate education, DEI training aims to remove obstacles in the workplace that emerge as a result of biases towards individuals from different backgrounds. On the advantages of DEI training, specialists from EW Group advise that your employees will benefit from a more diverse and inclusive work culture with opportunities for personal development and training that takes into account the specific challenges they face as individuals. Ultimately inclusive organisations have stronger foundations and the staff tend to have better physical and mental health.
Tech upskilling classes
On the other side of the fence, there is also a need to invest in your staff’s technical skills. As digital transformation efforts have accelerated, employees are now expected to be highly technologically literate. At the average organisation, it’s commonplace for staff to work remotely, manage their workflows digitally, and leverage up to 130 different software tools to complete their day-to-day activities. As a result, it’s paramount to offer training and resources to empower a tech-first workforce.
However, this doesn’t have to be a drain on budgets. Plenty of digital skills courses are available online as one-time purchases providing entire teams with access to e-learning modules. These can be completed at staff members’ own pace, helping them to broaden their IT skill sets and reduce the likelihood of data leaks or costly privacy breaches.
Mentorship programmes
Constructive feedback is an integral catalyst for employee development, helping to establish a culture of constant improvement. HR experts from Snap Surveys advise that “by asking for feedback, it can actually motivate employees to perform better. Employees like to feel valued and appreciate being asked to provide feedback that can help formulate business decisions.”
However, the challenge with creating a ‘feedback culture’ is that when they come unsolicited, pointers for improvement can be misinterpreted as undue criticism. A dedicated mentorship programme helps to address this problem by pairing junior members of staff with senior employees in their field, to provide praise, notes, and advice for any concerns they may have. This way, issues can be painlessly addressed and staff can improve on their weaknesses — all the while creating a collaborative network between colleagues that may otherwise not cross paths.
Charity opportunities
As the saying goes, everybody is wired differently — and for some of your staff, it simply won’t be enough to feel like they’re ‘giving back’ to the corporate bodies that employ them. Instead, they may also need opportunities to contribute to broader causes that they care about, be these social, environmental or otherwise. Offering charity days as part of the yearly calendar can help to engage staff members and boost morale.
What’s more, charity pursuits can serve as fruitful team-building exercises. Activities like beach cleaning, tree planting or sponsored walks are each simple ventures that can bring the team together toward common goals away from the office, improving personal and working relationships alike. And if a whole-team day spent offline sounds like a large expense to justify, the finance team will be glad to hear that effective team building can actually provide a healthy return on investment.
Ultimately, any initiatives that promote staff wellness, develop hard and soft skill sets, and improve working relationships will help to establish a well-rounded workforce. When you invest in your staff, you give more and you get more back — maximising your business’ growth potential.
