The Importance of Employee Development

Customers aren’t the most important part of your business. Employee development is.

No matter what type of company, the culture and employee culture make the difference. If employees are developed to be invested in the company, it will succeed.

If not, it will tie you down – and you may not even realize it. When businesses put the needs of clients and customers in front of their employees, everything suffers. It starts with picking and developing the right people and progresses to promoting the right ones. Each of these actions determines your company’s immediate future.

Excellent leaders create a culture where people make money and meaning from their work.  You have to be investing in employee development – before anything else.

First, it helps attract and keep the best employees. Employee retention is tough for so many companies, but putting your time, resources and effort into this builds loyalty. If you have the reputation as a boss who puts a lot into training, naturally it brings in Business excellent people and excellent employees.

Possibly the biggest benefit of developing quality employees is finding out exactly who is promotable.

It’s better to know the strengths and weaknesses of your employees in training, as opposed to finding out through co-workers or clients.  If you successfully do this time and time again, it keeps you looking toward the future. You’ll be thinking of what type of leadership you need and what clients need from your employees. The most important part of training is to get all your employees to work with the same company vision you have.

Planning how you train and develop employees is a good time to look at the intangibles of your job. Pay and benefits are one thing, but great employees need to be fully informed by their leaders and need leaders who listen as well. Employee development is the first part of building the right culture within your company.

Effects of a bad employee are deeper than you think.

The obvious setback is sunken time and money – but it’s more than that. Poor employees, whether poorly trained or not, submarine any business. The time you or someone else spends training an employee can’t be taken back.

Workflow interruptionhappen when an employee can’t solve something on their own or does something that slows the business down. It’s usually employees that aren’t thinking for themselves enough to problem solve. Rather than doing their own work,  you get bogged down with your subordinate’s problem time and time again.

This diminishes everyone’s productivity. Negative interactions influence people more than positive ones do, so problems get put under a microscope and overshadow positive events in your company. The amount of stress this puts on you or a manager is huge. Dealing with things that interrupt the day to day flow adds to an already full plate.

The average owner or manager spends 17 hours per week dealing with bad employees, according to careertrend.com. Think of the amount of work you get done in 17 hours.

This is why employee development is the most important aspect of a business. One poor employee can lower everyone’s morale. When people have to pick up slack for lazy or incompetent employees, they eventually become disengaged. This wears down on your loyal employees.

Not only that, but employees who aren’t invested in their company cause other employees to question their place within the company. It naturally rubs off on people.

If someone is complaining or talking about the company to other employees – even if they don’t agree with what’s said, they still remember it. Then this negative morale spills over to clients and customers. This is where it is the most noticeable.

This leads to a bad business reputation due to bad employees. It’s how brands become associated with poor customer service. No one wants to deal with a company like that. Once you get a poor reputation, it’s tough to come back from. When disgruntled employees work with clients – it’s the worst experience those clients can get.

It inspires an emotional connection with a client, which is what you want. It’s the completely wrong type of emotional connection. This resonates much longer in the age of social media. Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed and all the job sites will pick up on your brand’s reputation.

This hurts the chances of good to great employees wanting to work with your company. It also scares away future clients. According to Glassdoor.com, 33 percent of job seekers won’t apply to a company that has 3 or fewer starts. There are by-products of a disgruntled employee that aren’t visible until you look under the surface.

The biggest factor that isn’t directly seen is suppressed innovation.

When communication is great and the environment is also great – ideas and brainstorming happen naturally. It’s the opposite when communication isn’t flowing. The poor morale rubs off on employees and people stay within their day to day tasks without thinking of improvements or changes.

Higher turnover is another problem these employees end up creating. Employees that think they are in a great work environment are 25 percent more likely to plan a long-term future.  Businesses that don’t intervene with disgruntled employees in time lose trust from their best staff members. It can lead to them looking for a different job – and it does a lot.

Promoting the wrong employee does as much damage.

Taking your time and making sure the right people get the promotion is well worth the effort. Having the wrong person in charge will debilitate the entire staff. Here are some things to think of when you look at promoting someone.

Do they put the team in front of them?

Excellent employees won’t work well for someone that values themselves and their accolades more than the company’s. This is how employees become disengaged from their jobs. The responsibility of great leadership always outweighs the accolades.

Are they outdoing expectations in their current role?

An employee that meets their demands is just fine, but someone that does more than asked for is promotion material.

Are they an amazing communicator?

This is the most important quality of any manager or leader. If they’ve positively influenced people to succeed in your company – then they are.

Are they a great coach?

Someone who is promoted has to make everyone a better employee. There is a massive difference in being able to do something and being able to teach others to do something.

Do they emulate the companies vision?

This includes being loyal, trustful with the attributes your company stands for. This is when their personal goals are intentionally aligned with the company vision. Then they get other employees to buy into that vision. If they aren’t 100 percent behind it, then they won’t be able to get anyone else behind it.

You can see under the surface of your company’s culture with our survey.

You’ll be able to see if there are employees worth promoting or if the culture needs changing. It’s almost impossible to see the small signs.

The 3PHASE Business Advisors proprietary ACHIEVE More Culture Survey will tell you if you have:

  • Employee Engagement: An engaged team contributes their best to a shared goal. They want to grow with the company because they believe in the value of the work.
  • Accountability: Commitments, clarity and communication are the building blocks of accountability. A smart accountability process keeps everything moving smoothly.
  • Team & Trust: Having the right people in the right roles is key to having an A-level team. When problems arise, you’ll be able to solve them together in an open, honest, and respectful environment.
  • Purpose & Values: In a company with strong purpose and values, everyone believes in the “why” and “how” you go about your business. Important decisions are always tied back to these key shared beliefs.
  • Vision: A clear, shared vision of the long-term goals and what it will take to get there results in a team that will proactively work together to achieve them.
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