Every startup has one vital resource, its employees. Your company will live or die by the strength of the people you have on board, which is why you need to invest in them, not just as someone to fulfill a particular role, but someone that will keep improving your company and be the fundamental reason your business gets better.
So how can we invest in our employees to help them develop their skills further?
Create Development Plans.
This should always be the first step in improving our employees. By creating a development plan with the employee to discuss what the overall career goals are in the business structure, you will be able to learn a lot more about how you can help them. Some may find that they aren’t too sure about how to progress, but you can still create a development plan as a general road map. This can help them improve on existing skills, which may give them a better idea down the line of what they are uniquely gifted at in your company, and so they can move into a different department with ease.
Re-Education.
For a lot of people who went straight from school to a job means that they didn’t get the chance to go to university or study further. There are plenty of opportunities for people to learn a wealth of knowledge from work or at home, whether this is the digital learning programs you tend to find in most businesses or a distance learning program it can provide the tools your employees to progress up the ladder. For many, it can help them move sideways into a different department but don’t have the necessary technical skills, but it is feasible to master engineering online while fitting it around their life commitments. And that’s the main benefit of further education because it doesn’t impact on their work and, therefore, your time.
Give Them Opportunities Outside Of Their Job.
The compartmentalization of companies now means that employees feel they are only able to work within their own department. If you want to develop an employee for bigger and better things within the company you need to understand every single aspect of how the business works. You can do this by creating opportunities for them to work outside of their typical duties. By cross-training these members of staff to improve their awareness of every level of the business, it will imbue them with a better understanding overall, as well as expand their skill sets and improve their chances for promotion down the line.
The Importance Of Constructive Criticism.
It’s a very easy to give criticism that is taken the wrong way, which is why you need to give feedback that’s going to help them improve rather than dent their pride. Employees always want to know how good they are at their job which is why you could use feedback as a growth tool. You should give feedback on a regular basis and make sure you tie it into business processes like metrics or their personal development plans.
