Jessica Brannigan tells James Marsh in our latest podcast about why employee development is so important, what the impact is on employee development for organisations and how organisations can build a more comprehensive approach to employee development.
Jessica defines employee development in its truest sense cannot be something that is assigned by managers to HR as something that is done in the cogner. She argues that it is much more comprehensive, and should be built into more day-to-day management,
“OUT-OF-DATE THINKING IS SOMETHING THAT ID DAMAGING TO EMPLOYEES AND MANAGERS. IT NEEDS TO BE SOMETHING MORE CONSTANT AND ACTIVE.”
Explaining why it is so important, Jessica argues that growth and development opportunities are a top driver of engagement consistently. The importance of this has been magnified, she argues; as work continues to evolve after covid and the Great Quit, employees are thinking about whether their goals and desires are aligned with their current roles.
The market is more employee driven than ever. With the wealth of opportunities beckoning, attracting and keeping talent is more important than ever. Development is a key part of that, argues Jessica,
Access to development is crucial; speaking as if pay and development are two separate things should not be done. Looking at global data sets, employees who do not have access to meaningful development opportunities are twice as likely to leave an opportunity within a year. This was found to be more important than compensation, work-life balance and the manager combined.
“EMPLOYEES ARE CONSTANTLY LOOKING FOR GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES.”
Jessisa also discusses the impact of employee development for organisations. Recent research by Culture Amp found that companies that experience long-term growth are more likely to focus on development, as well as being more attractive to investors.
When we quantify if, we can get more specific. Those who focus on development see 42 percent more funding. This works out to $77k more per employee. Tapping into employee’s strengths and making them a better version of themselves is directly correlated to the success of an organisation.
When it comes to engagement, development has an impact here also. We see that if an employee believes a company is contributing to their development, engagement stands at 83 percent. This is much higher than the global mark. This is telling us that if the only thing we focus on is development, you will likely be outperforming the benchmark by 10 percent.
“IF ORGANISATIONS DO NOT FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT, THEN ENGAGEMENT STANDS AT A SHOCKINGLY LOW 19 PERCENT.”
Jessica also outlines how organisations can go about building a more comprehensive approach to employee development.
She outlines that the fundamental part of employee development is about performance. Making ongoing conversation and feedback to employees seamless and focused on personal growth is very important. Asking employees how they are feeling about their work allows a manager to collect information on these important topics.
Secondly, Jessica argues that setting developmental goals sets up a good dialogue on how progress is happening over time.
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Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
