Career development has changed significantly in the last twenty years. It used to be, when a new employee was hired, there was a standard career path to follow. And most team members were hired into a company as a “lifer,” meaning they took a job for 30 years, retired, and received a pension from that company. But organizations have changed, so has the  traditional career ladder.

The long-term relationship between an employee and company has also transformed. The idea of working at one company for a lifetime is now unthinkable, and as the stigma of frequent job switching has lessened, employees feel comfortable job hopping. A CareerBuilder survey noted that 45% of college grads will stay at a job two years or less, and that by age 35, a quarter of workers will have held five jobs or more.

Additionally, with unemployment at a historic low and quit rates at a historic high, valued team members who are dissatisfied with their career development can easily leave a company and land a new job with a 15% salary increase.

While those stats are true, 94% of employees said they would actually stay at a company longer if their employer invested in their careers. And 75% of team members who receive promotions will stay with the company for at least three years. 

These are big reasons why employee engagement and creating a culture of learning and development is so critical to the success of organizations. Designing and implementing a program is important for skill building, growth or diversification in your business, reorganizations, and employee retention. Additionally, if learning is tied to a core value and aligned to your business strategy, it is woven throughout the organization. It’s also a great way to provide career paths and reward & recognition to your employees. When they feel appreciated, engagement increases, and performance improves.

How can you create a culture of learning and development?

As a leader, helping your employees seek opportunities or advocate for them to learn and develop is critical. Career paths are no longer static, so instead of focusing employees on attaining a specific role, help them grow their skills.

Think back to your first job – was it your dream job? Just as your first job likely wasn't your dream job, it’s a good bet that your entry level team members aren't doing their dream job either. You won’t know what their dream job is unless you ask, and you have to be open to (and acknowledge) the fact that it might not be in your department. How do you help your team members eventually attain that dream job? 

Consider:

• What skills does the team member need to attain to be qualified for that dream job? How does the current job add to those skills? 

• Are there projects that your team members can work on that give them useful experience? 

• Is there a mentor in another department that can provide advice? 

• Are there volunteer or development opportunities outside of the company that would help strengthen a team member’s abilities?

At WCG, we encourage 5 best practices within organizations to support career development:

1. Create a Culture of Learning

First, the key to building a learning culture is to make it a core value. Learning and growth can determine your organizational priorities and dictate the best actions to take. Teams should believe learning is essential to the way they work. One way to achieve this is through onboarding. You can give new hires structured onboarding courses and get them used to learning from day one, clarifying that learning matters from the moment they start. When you consider promotions or lateral moves, is learning overtly fostered from the beginning?

2. Offer Career Advancement & Mobility

Individual career development should, theoretically, be rewarded with advancement or mobility (redeployment or shifts to another project/role) over time. This helps your employees understand that their commitment to learning will help them reach their career goals. For some, this could mean a promotion. For others, it could mean a lateral move to a different role, store, or brand with a desired change in responsibilities. If your team members are happy with their growth, whatever that means to them, you will see the benefits of helping them.

3. Partner with Employees to Build Career Paths

You will have more engagement with your employee if they are involved in the discussion. Talk to them about what their goals are and align on what their current strengths and skill gaps are. There may be opportunities within your organization to do shadowing, mentoring, or cross-training. Additionally, if there is a reorganization or restructuring of roles with your company, it may give you a chance to offer employees rotations into different areas. If an employee is missing a skill or a certification, look for ways to support them. Coach your employees to put their best foot forward as they continue to grow and develop. Sometimes it’s not a no, it’s a not yet.

4. Deliver Continuous Performance Management

Continuous performance management is the concept of an ongoing performance review throughout the year, as opposed to one or two sessions annually. Clear and regular communication between you as a leader and your employee not only fosters a healthy and open relationship, but they are also more receptive to feedback from someone they trust. By having regular and timely discussions, you build trust that you are on their side.

5. Provide Recognition & Rewards

Career advancement can take time; however, encouragement and recognition can occur frequently and continually. Motivate your employees to keep going by recognizing and rewarding them for the headway they’ve made. For example, leaders should recognize progress toward goals during regular one-on-ones and highlight team members publicly when they achieve new skills. Also, ensure compensation aligns financially to reward team members as they gain new knowledge and experience. ​Recognition and rewards demonstrate your organization’s value on career growth, so your employees feel supported in their career progression.​

Do these 5 best practices already exist in your organization? If not, WCG can help you evaluate what’s in place, and what additions or changes to implement to ensure the success of your organization and increase employee engagement. 

How does this tie into Performance Management?

Ideally, any learning and development opportunities for employees also link to your performance management process. This can be a strength to capitalize on, or a developmental area in which to grow. Additionally, as feedback is received during performance evaluations, it’s likely that additional strengths and developmental areas will emerge.   

When deciding upon professional development opportunities to offer your employees, recognize that not all of these need to occur in a traditional classroom setting. There are a myriad of options to help your employees continue to grow professionally. Ideas include: 

• Membership in professional organizations (in-person and online, such as LinkedIn groups) 

• Increased job responsibilities/on-the-job training 

• “Field trips” to applicable development opportunities 

• Research & report-out to the team 

• Mentoring 

• Conferences 

• Classroom opportunities 

Should your organization determine that a classroom program would be the most effective tool for learning, you have many ways to easily implement a program. First, there are a lot of great off-the-shelf products already available, such as LinkedIn Learning or Coursera. Spend some time researching if the right solution for you already exists. Typically, these companies will even host a session to see if their product will fit your needs. 

Recognizing this might not always be in the budget, other options include: 

• Bringing in a Subject Matter Expert to speak to the organization, 

• Creating your own content, 

• Participating in a Train-the-Trainer, where someone from your organization participates in a learning opportunity and comes back to teach others, and 

• External courses, workshops, and conferences.   

When considering a new Learning & Development program, it’s important to understand that there are many different categories of development. The training might improve technical skills, leadership skills, soft skills, or computer/technology skills. Reflect on the greatest need for the majority of individuals when considering purchasing a software product, bringing in a speaker, or creating your own content. When less people are impacted, the options of conferences, workshops, and external classes are more economical. 

You may also want to consider a Learning Management System (LMS) to manage this content for your organization. It often coincides with a Performance Management program and can be purchased independently off the shelf. Some popular ones you may have heard include Blackboard, Canvas, Litmos, and SkillPort. You will want to research and evaluate options based on the size of your organization and budget.  

That’s where the team at WCG can support you! We offer many different webinars and workshops and bespoke content creation if you have a more specific topic need. These can all be tailored to support your organization’s needs and budget. Reach out and let’s discuss how we can help you determine the best approach for working together.

Secure A Learning And Development Partner

Creating a culture of learning and development doesn’t happen overnight, but there are ways to work on clearly demonstrating a commitment to the employees in your organization. By doing so in a methodical and strategic way, this can greatly improve employee engagement, which ultimately can increase productivity and performance. You don’t have to do this alone! Our team of consultants collectively has more than 75 years of experience evaluating culture and can partner with you and your HR team to prioritize where to start and how best to move the needle forward.