What is a great methodology a manager to use for an employee development?

Greater employee engagement and a strong ‘business purpose’ are the newest, hottest key drivers for talent attraction and retention. 

Your managers and your business need to actively engage and think beyond the traditiona weekly 1:1, fruit and free coffee. Now more than ever people are looking to find tangible purpose in their role and are more conscious of their environmental, social and ethical impact. 

As such, to get that employee development as tangible and active as possible you will need to ensure the company has active people development, culture, CSR and wellbeing strategies as these will be a huge hook for bringing on the best talent and then retaining said talent. 

We are looking beyond BAU (business as usual) here, it's how building out that employee development can make an impact and be part of the greater good, both at a company level and at a societal level. 

As such:

• You must see the true value in equality, diversity and individuality

• You must advocate for equality, diversity and individuality internally and in our world

• You must be ever-conscious of their mental health

• You must be ever-conscious of their physical health

• You must meet and /or exceed legislation that protects their wellbeing.

• You must provide unique culture benefits

• You must give them the tools they need to succeed

• You must challenge them

• You must mentor them

• You must provide career development opportunities via clear and accessible pathways?

• You must engage with them and act on their feedback

• You must pay them competitively 

• You must be unique in our perk offering in a way that truly represents the wants and pleasures and activities of the team

• You must be flexible

 There is a whole strategy that touches and drives other areas of business here, happy to go through it at a high level, but the above is a great start.

I usually begin by asking them what they want from their career and how they see this fitting with their current position.

If you can then identify issues that they believe stops them from undertaking their duties successfully and what they would like to change to allow them to be better at their role, this will be a starting point.

Take feedback from their colleagues and line manager/supervisor regarding their performance, attitude, personality etc and assess the different views of the individual and the tird parties. Obviously this is confidential and is not to be shared further. Trust is a major factor here and must not be compromised.

Providing that the individuals aims and objectives align with the Company business, I.E. they do not want to be a hairdresser in your engineering company, then look to establish a development programme with training, coaching and practical challenges in line with SMART parameters, discuss these with the individual and  adjust following discussion. You cannot force this through but neither should the programme be watered down so that they don't have to try and achieve.

Don't be afraid to call in specialists within the Company to mentor the individual.

Maintain an ongoing discussion.

Document everything and both sign this off as it should be a binding document to what has been agreed, but should not be used as a means to discipline or force the individual out.

Kevin Robson

Methodology should not predispose this very important conversation to boundaries. However a guiding framework could be OSIR

Objective - What is the end goal/ timescale 

Status -Where are we at today relative to the objective 

Issues - What are obstacles / Skill gaps / Needs

Recommendations - Action items to be pursued / reviewed / adjusted as part of continuous improvement

Above all ongoing discussions with manager probing for solutions / path forward and not simply prescribing what is needed