Career advancement does not only take place in educational institutions; the work environment is full of learning opportunities.

The more we work, the more we can learn, develop new skills and abilities, realize our passions, and discover new talents. It is hard to find good talent, especially in today's labour market. As we have seen, employees are not just looking for "work"; they are looking for opportunities for professional development. They are not interested in working for companies that cannot meet their growth needs or help them achieve their career goals. They are looking for companies willing to invest in them - specifically in their personal and professional growth.

Employees are the lifeblood of an organization, so it is essential to provide them with the training tools, tutorials, and online training solutions they need to succeed. Above all, they should undergo ongoing online training (other than initial onboarding), which will enable them to improve their skills, learn about the latest products and prepare for work tasks. Employee retention and satisfaction will decline without continuous training and growth opportunities.

This emphasizes the importance of staff training and development. However, providing effective employee development is a great way to attract new employees and a much more effective way to support employee performance, engagement, and retention. (Trifecta!)

What is employee development?

Employee development is a strategic partnership of the employee as well as the employer to upskill or reskill the existing abilities and knowledge of an individual. Professional development is not just about optimizing an individual's skills for a specific task. Instead, it focuses on continuous learning that educates professionals and helps them advance their careers. Although it is ultimately the individual's responsibility to achieve their professional development, it is an advantage for employers to support further education by providing or arranging internal and external training opportunities.

Companies can offer employee development by upskilling or reskilling, which are crucial in employee development. Upskilling employees involves training to help them perform better in their current jobs. Reskilling involves training the employee to take on a new position within the company. This will help the organization remain competitive and flexible as the industry changes. During the pandemic, various companies took on reskilling initiatives as they struggled to maintain operations with fewer staff and supply chain disruption.

Employee development involves the employer and employee identifying together areas for improvement and identifying what actions or activities need to be taken to learn and engage in that learning. This development plan aligns with the organization's goals and ultimately serves as a template that outlines the skills that employees need and how they can acquire them. Today, more than ever, due to the impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the COVID-19 pandemic, business learning and growth are a top priority in the workplace.

A Learning Management System (LMS) allows you to have access to a technology that can be used for the development of employees in your company. This is achieved by using online tools and resources that will help them improve their skills, efficiency and achievements in the workplace. An LMS will allow you to create personalized learning pathways within the system that are driven and pushed by your employees' individual interests, needs, goals and career paths. You can also increase motivation to learn in an engaging and social environment with an LMS.

Employees look for personalized experiences, clear expectations and goals, and effective communication in their jobs. It helps them feel that their company empowers them to succeed. Who would not want to work for a company that puts employees first and empowers their success?

The importance of employee development

The best leaders are built, not bought, which is why there is a significant difference between leadership acquisition and leadership development. Companies should be trying to retain employees, not attracting the best people. Employees value learning and growth, and job seekers will look for jobs in organizations that provide it. A strong culture of skilling and development (reskilling) is often a neglected part of a talent acquisition strategy.

There are fees for recruitment and technology, job posting advertising, the long interviewing process, plus the potential for higher turnover among new hires. This is all before the lengthy onboarding and ramping-up process, which can take months. Upskilling and reskilling are not only better for developing and retaining talent; it is also more profitable. Millennial workers demand training and development opportunities from their organizations. Organizations that provide these dynamic training opportunities are doing better than others in terms of hiring and retention. It is time for all organizations to take the right step. Allowing your employees to learn and grow is necessary, and there is no doubt that it will pay off in the long run.

Empowering employees is about giving them access to the correct data and information for them to make the right decision in terms of improving productivity. This helps employees do their job successfully and allows them to learn while supporting a more robust learning culture within the organization.

The real purpose of empowering employees is to give them a certain level of autonomy and responsibility when it comes to decision-making. Providing support tools and resources to workers is essential so that they can work autonomously. In most cases, organizations recognize that training and development is the best tool for hiring. Employee autonomy is based primarily on effective decision-making about organizational tasks. These tasks vary from simple to complex, and the ability to make informed decisions promptly can win or lose a case for both the employee and the organization. If there is a point to be made about why training and development are essential to an organization, it is the message of employee empowerment. Reliable, confident, well-informed and trained autonomous employees are the products of a successful training and development initiative.

This is where Captivo's Learning Management System comes into play! Over time, you will be able to reinforce the learning you are providing and create a sense of personalized growth. This makes an LMS very powerful in the management of learning and development because it allows employees to have personalized goals and development. It will bring lasting benefits because it can provide flexible training and effective intervention techniques to help your employees grow in just the right direction they need to. Captivo's LMS will allow you to appeal to different learning preferences as well as engage your employees and foster their professional development with personalized, targeted learning experiences.

Sources:

 i, ii : LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report.” Workplace Learning & Development Report 2018 | LinkedIn Learning, learning.linkedin.com, https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report-2018. Accessed 29 June 2022.