The Answers My Friend, Are Coming from Within: Internal Employee Development

[00:00:00] Welcome to Wine with HR. I'm Jules. Hey there, I'm Trish. Lawyers turned HR professionals.

[00:00:20] Through our company, Monarch Endeavors, we guide employers through their oh shit moments

[00:00:25] with their employees. In this podcast, we will discuss some of the most common and commonly

[00:00:31] frustrating HR problems while enjoying our favorite adult beverage, wine. So sit back,

[00:00:37] grab a glass if you choose and join us as we think about and drink about all things HR.

[00:00:46] Welcome to this episode of Wine with HR. So you might remember last episode, we discussed

[00:00:53] how you might be able to use freelancers or even part-time employees to fill certain

[00:00:59] positions. Today, we're going to be discussing looking within your company to develop the

[00:01:06] employees that you already have. What do you think about that, Jules? I feel like the answers,

[00:01:12] my friend, are coming from within. Oh my gosh. Another song that you're going to get in my head

[00:01:20] and I'm going to be singing it for the next two days. I'm still singing. It's a lady's

[00:01:28] right and worth the fight. I don't know where all the songs are coming from. It's just,

[00:01:34] anyway, no, this is a great topic because we're talking not just about the employees who have

[00:01:40] been tapped for leadership or promotion, but how to develop all of your employees. But before

[00:01:46] we get there, let's talk about what we're drinking. I hope everybody could hear that

[00:01:51] little cheers. Yes, Julie and I are in the same spot and today we're actually drinking

[00:01:58] the same thing. Coffee and Baileys because we are recording in the morning.

[00:02:06] Lines seemed a little excessive. It did, but everyone already knows that we love our Baileys.

[00:02:11] Yes, and it is the espresso Baileys which is so good. So good. Chef's kiss.

[00:02:22] All right. We need to even say anything more about that. Everybody's like, I want some too

[00:02:26] now. Yeah. Okay, Trish. So how do we define employee development? I actually really like

[00:02:33] this definition. So I'm going to share one from one of our many articles that we were

[00:02:38] looking through. All of the articles we reference, including my favorite stats will be in today's

[00:02:46] show notes. So don't forget to check those out. So the definition, employee development

[00:02:52] is the method in which employees learn new skills and broaden their knowledge over time

[00:02:58] to grow their careers with support and guidance from their employers. I love that support and

[00:03:05] guidance from their employers. Examples include onboarding, on the job training,

[00:03:11] classroom and online training, shadowing, coaching, mentoring, experiencing other parts

[00:03:17] of the organization, industry conferences and networking. I love networking. And then finally,

[00:03:26] cross-training. That's such a great definition. Yeah. It covers a wide variety of ways to

[00:03:33] develop your employees. Yeah. So Julie, why do you think it's important? Well, I think one of

[00:03:40] the main reasons is as we were talking about last episode and in a few of the other episodes

[00:03:45] this season, lots of companies are facing a really tight job market and they're having

[00:03:52] trouble finding talent. So if you start developing your talent from within that will hopefully help

[00:03:58] alleviate some of that pain point. Oh, I love that. I'm guessing it would help with retention

[00:04:04] too, huh? Yes, absolutely. In fact, 74% of employees say that a lack of professional

[00:04:11] development is preventing them from reaching their full potential. 74%? 74%. That's an incredible

[00:04:19] number. Does that mean it's stats time? It's stats time. See, we need like a special song

[00:04:26] for stats time. Yeah, we do. All right. So I have one for you. 59% of millennials say they

[00:04:36] find development opportunities extremely important when deciding whether to even apply for a position.

[00:04:44] That's a big number. That is a big number. That's so awesome. Yeah. Also, a lack of

[00:04:50] opportunities for growth accounts for 37.1% of employee departures. 37%? Yeah. Over a third.

[00:04:59] Wow. Okay, I've got one for you. Employees who find satisfaction in their jobs show a 20%

[00:05:08] increase in productivity over those who don't, which leads to productive companies

[00:05:16] boasting a 30 to 50% higher profit margin than their less productive counterparts.

[00:05:23] That is a big boost to the bottom line. Yes, it is. I love this. Let's keep going.

[00:05:31] Well, and then another interesting stat is that the average cost of turnover is $4,700 per employee.

[00:05:38] So you think about even if you lose 10 to 12 employees a year, that can add up very quickly.

[00:05:46] So if we can use some of the tools we talk about today to help retain employees, we cut down

[00:05:52] on that turnover cost. And I think if you lose them in the first 90 days, that number even is

[00:05:58] higher, isn't it? Sure. Yeah. I thought so. Yeah. So that's crazy. All right.

[00:06:04] I want to do another one with a big number. Ready? Yep. An MIT Sloan study found a 250%

[00:06:13] return on investment in just eight months for an in-factory soft skills training.

[00:06:19] Yeah. That's another big number. It is. Well, and then 76% of employees say they are more

[00:06:28] likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. Wow. Yeah. All right. So

[00:06:34] clearly these are some fantastic numbers. Let me give you just a little more reason

[00:06:41] to develop your in-house employees. Number one, you will unlock their creativity

[00:06:48] by giving them the opportunity to broaden themselves and to create new skills or hone

[00:06:56] the ones they already have. You are allowing them to do that, which will also, by the way,

[00:07:02] improve performance. It creates a goal oriented mindset, which we all love.

[00:07:10] Anything that we can do to create goals, reach them and grow. And then of course,

[00:07:16] as we've already said, you're going to save money through employee retention. Yes. So let's

[00:07:24] talk a little bit about what would be included in an employee development program. Oh, I like

[00:07:30] this. So there are a number of things you heard when Trisha was giving the definition.

[00:07:35] She mentioned a bunch of things that could be included in an employee development program.

[00:07:41] We're going to talk about some of the ones we like the most in a little bit more detail.

[00:07:45] So the first one that I'm going to start with is stretch assignments. So this is

[00:07:53] a part of having, you can call it whatever you want, but an employee development plan or

[00:07:59] an individual development plan for each employee. And part of what should be included in that plan

[00:08:05] is what they call stretch assignments, which are something that puts the employee a little bit out

[00:08:10] of their comfort zone, causes them to have to stretch to be able to accomplish something. So

[00:08:16] it helps them grow professionally, maybe even personally. And it helps the company in some way

[00:08:23] because they're learning a skill that the company needs. Now, is this something that

[00:08:30] the company decides on or is this something that the employee decides on? How do we get there?

[00:08:37] I think it's a conversation between the employee and the manager. Oh, oh my gosh,

[00:08:42] a conversation. Yeah, a conversation, because it's got to be something the employee wants to do

[00:08:49] so they have buy-in, but it's got to also be something that is useful for the organization.

[00:08:55] I love that. Okay, where am I going to go? Let me think. I think I'm going to go to

[00:09:05] 360 degree performance reviews. This is one of my favorites because it really gives you

[00:09:12] a broad idea of how the person is doing for every single person that they work for.

[00:09:21] It's not just their direct manager, but maybe a skip level manager or we've talked before about

[00:09:29] managing upwards, sideways, etc. Obviously, that is something that the manager can do and so

[00:09:36] can the employees. But when you're talking about these performance reviews, we're talking

[00:09:41] about really helping them grow because every single person that weighs in on these reviews

[00:09:49] is going to see something different. They're going to see a skill that maybe needs to be

[00:09:55] developed a little more or they may see something that you didn't as a manager or as HR because

[00:10:03] they are working with them and they go, oh, they really did a great job here or wow,

[00:10:09] they have this skill, but we need to develop it further. It's just one more person to help spot

[00:10:17] those potential areas of growth. I really like that because you probably get a lot

[00:10:21] of different perspectives than you normally would. That's exactly what I was trying to say.

[00:10:25] Thank you. Okay, how about mentoring programs? I found this interesting. Over 70% of Fortune

[00:10:36] 500 companies have some sort of internal mentorship program. They obviously have

[00:10:42] recognized that this is something that is very helpful for their employees. When you have

[00:10:49] mentoring programs, your retention rates increase, productivity increases, a lot of the

[00:10:55] skills gaps close because you're sharing institutional knowledge oftentimes when you pair

[00:11:02] somebody who's been working in the company for a long time with somebody more

[00:11:07] junior or newer to the company, you can transfer those skills and the culture becomes more

[00:11:14] inclusive because you have different, sometimes generations talking to each other. You're

[00:11:20] bringing different groups together. There's really no downside to a mentoring program

[00:11:25] other than the time that it takes both employees, but I think that's a small

[00:11:29] disadvantage given how many benefits you get from it. Oh, 100% agree. Speaking of inclusivity,

[00:11:37] I would remind everyone out there, this is a great opportunity for HR and managers to work

[00:11:45] together to create one of these programs. You also want to be the ones who are doing the

[00:11:52] pairing. What I have found in a lot of my research is that they say if you allow employees

[00:11:58] to pair themselves, they're going to pair themselves up with someone who looks like them

[00:12:05] or acts like them or something like that. If you really want to build that inclusivity

[00:12:10] and really get the benefits that Julie was talking about, make sure that you are the one

[00:12:15] who's doing the pairing so that you can really get the full growth out of your program.

[00:12:21] The mentoring pairing should be intentional. You should be looking at, for example, what

[00:12:28] types of skills this person has to develop and pair them with somebody who has already

[00:12:32] developed those skills or who can help them develop those skills. 100% agree.

[00:12:40] Do you love news about LinkedIn, Indeed, Google, and just about every other recruitment

[00:12:45] tech company out there? Hell yeah. I'm Chad. I'm Cheese. We're the Chad and Cheese Podcast.

[00:12:51] All the latest recruiting news and insights are on our show. Dripping in snark and attitude.

[00:12:58] Subscribe today wherever you listen to your podcasts. We out.

[00:13:05] I was just thinking, I was like, speaking of helping developing skills, how about cross-training?

[00:13:12] Very important. Yes. I think cross-training

[00:13:15] is a wonderful idea. It goes well with our discussion from our last episode as well.

[00:13:21] Because if you do have employees who you can cross-train, when you do have people leaving,

[00:13:29] you can fill some of those gaps temporarily. Now, we, by the way, are not telling you to

[00:13:35] dump an entire new position on someone. No. That's not what we're saying. But we're

[00:13:40] saying cross-training allows your employees to develop skills that they wouldn't otherwise if

[00:13:47] they were just doing their single job. They may find that they actually like these new

[00:13:52] skills that they're gaining from the cross-training and maybe even say to you,

[00:13:57] hey, I had no idea I was interested in this. I would like to grow, not go grow,

[00:14:04] in this direction. Absolutely.

[00:14:08] What else? Also giving your employees an opportunity to do their own development,

[00:14:17] self-guided development in topics that are interesting to them but again also useful

[00:14:23] for their position or to the company. That can be done a lot of different ways,

[00:14:28] but one of them is offering some sort of online learning or training.

[00:14:35] We've said it a couple of times, but we have been recording a whole bunch of courses and we're

[00:14:39] going to be releasing some online courses for managers and HR professionals later this year,

[00:14:46] hopefully in a couple of months here. You can check those out, small little plug.

[00:14:51] But any type of online learning or training can be really valuable and that's a great thing to do

[00:14:58] if employees do have downtime. It's usually pretty cost effective, but it can let them level

[00:15:05] up. I like that. Oh, I'm going to go right on that one. Another way that they could do that,

[00:15:12] I saw this in an article. I never even thought about using YouTube.

[00:15:17] A nice and formal way of learning as well. What other kind of ways could they do some learning?

[00:15:24] Another idea is having a job rotation program so that again it does go along with cross

[00:15:30] training, but if you let people work in a particular job for a particular period of time,

[00:15:37] then they can pick up those new skills. I like that. I think one of the other things

[00:15:44] that we have not said yet, but with every single one of these ideas, celebrate. As your employee

[00:15:52] learns new skills, as they put them to use, make sure that you are celebrating their growth

[00:16:00] and all of the new accomplishments that they're achieving. Absolutely. It's very important.

[00:16:06] One of the other things I wanted to touch on is for our managers who are listening,

[00:16:11] so those of you who have a team, I think it's important to take stock of where you are as a

[00:16:18] leader when you are trying to figure out how to implement an employee development program for your

[00:16:26] team members. There was a really interesting article from the University of Cambridge.

[00:16:34] Their human resource office developed a behavioral attributes framework that identifies

[00:16:39] four different levels of people development. It describes leaders in different levels. I'm going

[00:16:46] to read those real quick, but level A is a leader creates an environment where employees

[00:16:51] are motivated to achieve the organization's goals and their own personal development goals.

[00:16:57] They also continually look for ways to improve the organization's performance through its people.

[00:17:03] Level B, a leader who encourages employees to pursue learning opportunities and invest time

[00:17:09] in helping them close skill gaps. They also give clear direction and guidance to help employees

[00:17:14] grow. Level C, a leader who doesn't take an active role in people development but encourages

[00:17:21] employees to pursue learning opportunities they're passionate about. Or level D, the leader

[00:17:26] takes ownership of their own performance and is willing to help others if the opportunity

[00:17:31] presents itself. We obviously want people to be in level A or B, but I think it's important

[00:17:39] because you may fall in any of these levels, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't try all

[00:17:44] of the tips we've talked about today and start moving up until you are in level A or B.

[00:17:53] I really like that. So again, we'll have a link to this in the show notes so that you

[00:17:58] guys can check it out because I'm sure you weren't furiously writing down with pen and paper everything

[00:18:03] that I just said. No? Here's the thing, the reason that we really wanted to focus

[00:18:13] on employee development other than all of the the stats that we shared with you, we just both

[00:18:20] believe that it's incredibly important for your employees to know that you support them in what

[00:18:28] it is that they're going to do, whatever kind of growth opportunity they're looking for, whatever

[00:18:33] kind of stretch they want to make, that you're going to be there to walk them through it.

[00:18:41] And that is one of the most crucial parts of retention. All of this does come down to

[00:18:49] happy employees. And a happy employee is more productive and they're going to stay with you,

[00:18:55] which again, that what was it? $4700 per employee. I mean, that's a lot of money

[00:19:03] if you're losing a lot of employees every year. Yeah, it adds up quickly. And like you said,

[00:19:08] it's probably higher if it's in the first 90 days and it's probably lower or higher

[00:19:13] depending on the industry. So I think that's one very useful thing all companies can do

[00:19:19] is figure out what their turnover cost is and then maybe start implementing some of these

[00:19:25] things and see if retention rates go up and that turnover cost goes down. That's one way

[00:19:30] to measure success because we do want to have a way to measure whether the employee development

[00:19:37] things that we're doing are actually working. Return on investment. Yes. So figure out what

[00:19:43] you can measure. So again, you could start with your turnover costs. You can also do

[00:19:48] employee engagement surveys, do a baseline one before you implement the program and then

[00:19:56] check in every, I'd give it 90 days, do one at 90 days, maybe one at six months,

[00:20:02] once a quarter to see what sort of results you're getting. And if people are reporting

[00:20:07] higher levels of engagement and satisfaction, then you know you're onto something. I love this.

[00:20:14] The last thing that I want to say before we wrap up is, well, I actually just want to take

[00:20:19] it right back to the beginning, Jules. I want to focus on the fact that we are in a tighter

[00:20:25] job market and I think that this is something that everyone could do really inexpensively.

[00:20:34] There are so many ways that you can create a program like this, work with your employees,

[00:20:41] even if you want to talk about employee engagement, like Julie was just saying,

[00:20:45] maybe talk to your employees, maybe create a group that is interested in this and get their

[00:20:51] ideas. Be a great way to engage your employees and also make them feel valued, which is of

[00:20:58] course always our key. So what do you think? Any final thoughts? I think we covered most of

[00:21:06] them. As we said, I want to reiterate that the one stat that really stuck out to me,

[00:21:11] which is 76% of employees say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers

[00:21:17] continuous training. As we've talked about in this episode, that training does not necessarily

[00:21:22] have to be formalized training. It can be on-the-job training. It can be from a mentor.

[00:21:27] It could be cross-training, some of that informal networking, mentors outside the

[00:21:32] organization, mentors inside the organization, coaching. There's a wide variety of ways that

[00:21:38] you can give people that continuous training. But the point is that if you give them ways to

[00:21:45] learn and grow, they're more likely to stay with you for longer, contribute more, and help

[00:21:51] the company in turn increase their bottom line, which we all know that's what most of this

[00:21:58] is about. So if you need a business case for why employee development is so important,

[00:22:04] that's it. Period. I love it. Well, how is your Bailey's? Gone. Oh no.

[00:22:15] Well then I think it's time to say goodbye to our friends and tell them that we will see them

[00:22:22] soon. Please follow us on social so that you get those updates on when we are releasing our new

[00:22:30] classes if you're looking for a more formalized training method. Yes. And subscribe wherever

[00:22:37] you get your podcasts. We'll catch you on the next time. Cheers.