Putting your employees in a position to succeed: How to help your talent grow

As Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) know firsthand, the post-pandemic labour market is extremely competitive. Unemployment is as low as it’s been for decades and businesses across all industries are struggling to fill open positions.

Internal employee development is increasingly a preferred option for talent managers looking to hit recruitment targets. Creating the right environment for existing employees to upskill and build knowledge across their organization is the key to success for managers who want to reduce the need to find external talent that matches their skill set and culture fit needs.

Promoting internal talent growth also keeps employees happier, healthier and more committed to their work. And by making your employees feel valued, you’re increasing the chances of retaining your top talent.

Here are 5 keys to help put your employees in a position to succeed and grow:

1. Develop a strategic workforce education plan

   Workforce education programs encourage organizations to take a long-term view of their needs and map out employee learning and development plans that align those needs with the career paths of their internal talent.

   A long-term strategic plan can ensure employees receive the right training and education so they’ll be ready to compete for hard-to-fill positions when the need arises. Employees will feel supported to embrace learning, grow their skills, and focus on opportunities to advance their careers.

   Recruitment challenges can be minimized with effective planning and prioritization of internal workforce development, and studies have shown a strong return on investment for companies that pursue long-term strategic education and training of their existing talent.

2. Recruit from within

   A natural next step for organizations with workforce education programs, hiring internally reinforces the message that an organization values employee growth and development.

   And that’s a good thing, because internal career mobility within an organization is consistently rated among the top priorities of contemporary employees.

   According to a LinkedIn survey, 94% of employees said they would stay in their current role longer if their company invested in their professional development. Millennials especially are prioritizing opportunities for growth when seeking out a new employer or deciding whether to remain with their current one.

   When we talk about internal mobility we don’t just mean vertically into higher-level positions, but also horizontally into new positions. Giving employees the opportunity to address skill and competency gaps and learn new parts of the business, even in a lateral move, can be just as attractive to workers as a promotion.

3. Embrace the peer-to-peer learning approach

   Learning and development tactics are increasingly shifting from a “supervisor” paradigm to a “partnership” paradigm. That means that instead of being mentored by their supervisor or a third-party consultant, employees are more often engaged in peer-to-peer mentorship with fellow coworkers.

   Advantages of peer-to-peer learning include trainees experiencing less stress about making a mistake, stronger self-governance among employees, and closer collaboration among team members.

   For busy managers of SMEs, this bottom-up approach to talent development also saves time and benefits the organization as a whole by making the most efficient use of existing resources.

4. Reduce barriers

   Embrace the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) alongside your talent development objectives. An inclusive approach that values the qualities and backgrounds that make individuals unique, such as race, age, religion, disabilities and ethnicity, offers a strategic advantage by providing a more holistic and comprehensive view on all aspects of your workplace culture and operations.

   Studies show that organizations with more diverse workforces are better at problem solving and ultimately more successful than less diverse ones (by up to 33% according to one study by McKinsey) and DEI is quickly becoming a priority for people when choosing where to work.

   Companies with leading talent management programs are increasingly focused on implementing and strengthening DEI measures, and those who don’t follow suit are likely to be disadvantaged in their talent recruitment and retainment efforts.

5. Treat feedback as a two-way street

   Feedback is essential to workplace learning and education, and it should go both ways.

   Employees learning new skills or expanding their knowledge of a new part of a business should be given clear goals to strive toward and provided with regular feedback both in areas where they are succeeding and areas that could use improvement.

   Patience should be exercised with employees learning on the job about new roles and responsibilities, and objectives should be actively adjusted to reflect the pace of their development. Metrics can be tracked to help trainees measure their performance and growth over time.

   Feedback should also be solicited from employees on how they feel the training is going, where they could use more support, and whether expectations and instructions could be clearer. Self-assessments are a good way for managers or peer-to-peer mentors to seek observations from trainees. Managers should be prepared to make adjustments to their training programs based on the feedback they receive, and above all, should remember the core objective is to create a culture that embraces continuous learning.