5 Strategies to Make Development a Workplace Expectation

In this article we share 5 strategies to make development a workplace expectation. If you want your company to experience continued success, you must develop your employees continually. But the effort must be reciprocated. Similarly, if you want to build a workplace where personal development is expected, you must create the infrastructure first. And hire employees who are willing to put in the effort. Are you hiring employees who want to develop? Do they take ownership of their own personal and career development? Or do they expect the company to automatically promote them, give them salary increases, or increased responsibilities without their collaboration?

When we facilitate strategic planning sessions with our clients, we often ask them “who are the right people? The right people are those whose core values align with the company’s core values. Then we address the company’s top five core values. You don’t create the core values, you identify them. They are already built in the company’s culture. Does your company have a core value that reflects the expectation for employees to develop themselves? If yes, are you keeping your employees accountable to develop themselves? When this is not one of the company’s core values, it will take time to incorporate it into the existing culture.

Businesses desire to experience sustainable success and the way to achieve that is through its employees. Therefore, ideally, businesses seek employees who are loyal, enthusiastic, learners, and take ownership of their own development. Without continued employee development the company does not evolve and remains stagnant. Employees leave when they lack support or development opportunities in their workplace.

Below are 5 strategies to make development a workplace expectation:

Incorporate employee development into your core values.

In this article, we assume that your company has shared its core values with employees. We also assume the core values are easily found within company literature or on your website. Therefore, we ask the question: What if one of your core values were “Employee Development”? But the description of this core value is not the typical “We provide opportunities for our employees to develop.” What if instead it says, “We expect employees to take ownership of their personal and professional development”? This statement forces employees to reflect and decide if they can adhere to this core value before accepting a job.

Create the expectation through communication.

Even if this core value isn’t formalized at your company, you can begin applying it by communicating with all staff. Communicating the vision and core values to the staff is one of the CEO’s key responsibilities. There are multiple ways that leadership communicates the core values. They can be displayed in the company’s conference rooms, the website, shared at staff meetings, and during one-on-one meetings. The point is that they should be recited and shared continually so everyone memorizes them. And ideally, they start demonstrating them. Creating the expectation is the first step to achieving results.

Provide the opportunities.

Once your company creates the expectation of employees taking ownership of their own development, the company must provide the opportunities. There are several ways in which the company meets their side of the commitment to develop their employees. The company must provide the support to allow for the time to attend webinars, seminars, conferences, or other activities. The business should finance these activities, including providing an executive coach for the potential successors to leadership roles.

The Human Resources department can also work with the managers to create Personal Development Plans (PDP) for high potential employees. All these efforts pay off in the end. Employees develop a sense of loyalty and see their future with the company. The probability of these employees leaving is much less than if they don’t get any opportunities.

Make employees accountable.

Once you provide the resources and tools to help employees develop personally and professionally, you can now make them accountable. The best way to do so is by incorporating all core values in the employees’ job descriptions. Then you can hold them accountable by conducting a performance review. Whether the review is annual, quarterly, or monthly check-ins, that’s how you bring accountability. Employees can collaborate with their manager and HR to develop their own training and development programs. They can also prepare for future higher responsibility roles by identifying and filling the gaps to get promoted.

Measure results.

Lastly, the company can require results based on all the investments made in each employee and measurable accountabilities. Results are not always money or production related. Sometimes the result is a better work environment where employees feel appreciated and valued. This in turn does result in increased productivity and ultimately revenues. Your company now can expect sustainable success by expecting employees to develop themselves continually.

I encourage you to put these 5 strategies to make development a workplace expectation into practice. Each step you take towards continued and sustainable success helps you achieve your company’s long-term objectives.