Five Best Practices for Employers Encouraging Employee Engagement

One of the best recipes for success in business today is to hire great workers and provide great growth opportunities. 

Frustration over a lack of career growth opportunities is one of the top reasons why employees seek new employment opportunities. For businesses, this can be solved by investing in employee development. Not only does this improve employee satisfaction, but the added training opportunities can also improve performance, too. 

Here are a few fundamental steps employers can take in the interest of employee development.

Creating an Employee Development Plan 

Offer Standardized Performance Reviews

Employee development needs to begin with employee feedback. Offering constructive and standardized performance reviews is one of the simplest ways to do this.

Standardized performance reviews provide employees with clear goals and benchmarks to meet. Periodic reviews can also help foster a growth mindset in workers as well. The goal of these reviews should always be to provide constructive, supportive feedback for development. Performance reviews that are overly critical or used to punish workers can negatively impact employee development.

Provide Growth and Learning Opportunities

Another central component of an employee development plan is to provide direct growth opportunities. This could come in the form of training courses, seminars, or other educational materials. The importance of an employee development program can’t be understated for a number of reasons. Having satisfied, career-minded employees is just one reason why.

It’s also crucial to remember that not everyone learns the same way, or is at the same career stage. Offering a variety of developmental programs, with opportunities for personalization, is ideal. This allows employees to grow in ways that are important to their own careers, at their own pace.

Provide Clearly Defined Career Paths

This may seem clear and obvious to some, but it’s not something that every company provides. If a business wants to invest in employee development, it should be able to demonstrate clearly defined career paths for its employees. What are the opportunities for advancement for workers? What steps will they need to reach those stages? What skills or formal training will be required?

Listen

Another way for employers to invest in employee development is to give the employees a space to provide feedback. This gives employees a chance to ask questions, express opinions, or address career goals with their employer. It also helps to foster a healthier work environment. 

Employees who are comfortable speaking up tend to be more comfortable, and less afraid to make mistakes in the workplace. And lastly, listening to employees can help employers identify areas of weakness or growth potential within the company. This can often open up organic career growth opportunities for employees.

Invest in People

Lastly, any employer who wants to invest in employee development should also simply invest in its employees. Each of the steps mentioned above are effective ways to show commitment to employees and their professional growth. But it also pays to invest in employees as people, too. 

This can start with having a work culture that prioritizes well-being and satisfaction for employees. Any steps you can take to encourage physical and emotional well-being, and a healthy work-life balance, is a plus. Fostering a supportive work environment also goes a long way. Employers can also organize fun events or provide lunches from time to time. Simple gestures like these can make employees feel valued and appreciated. That can go a long way to retaining employees and allowing them to grow in their careers with the company.

Employee Training and Development Resources

You can also invest in your own career growth by seeking out employee training and development resources on your own. ASAP provides a wide variety of training resources for administrative professionals, ranging from articles to training courses and webinars. Consider becoming a member for full access to all of ASAP’s development resources.