Ways to Support Employees Seeking for Professional Development
It’s easy for some employees to get bored at work. It’s true for those who have been around for a long time. They keep doing the same tasks each day. Their lives start to become predictable, and they’re not learning anything new. There might even be a point when your employee comes to you and asks for support regarding professional development. You have to try your best to be supportive in this undertaking. You’re lucky to have an employee who constantly strives for learning. Besides, whatever your employee learns along the way could be beneficial to your company.
Prepare options
It helps if your company has options related to professional development. You can ask your employees to choose from these options. Some of them are short projects or training. Others might include long-term courses. The point is that you need to have choices and explain the value of every choice.
If you don’t have one yet, you can sit with the employees and brainstorm. Your employees might already have specific plans in mind on how to develop professionally.
Conduct regular training and workshops
You need to invite top experts in the field to provide training and workshop. You can learn a lot from what these people will share with everyone. You can also open the floor for question and answer sessions. Everyone feels involved in the process and can learn a lot even if the training only lasted for a few hours or days.
Maximize the use of modern technology
If there’s new technology available that will help make the job easier for everyone, you have to consider using it. You want your employees to learn from the technology and use it to hasten the job. You can’t stick with the same strategy that no longer works
Be financially prepared
Some of these professional development courses and seminars come with a price. Your employees come to you because they couldn’t afford the fees. Therefore, you need to allocate a budget for professional development each year. You can’t always refuse a request for help since it reflects your lack of interest in the growth of your employees.
Set conditions
Since your company is going to spend for the professional development fees, you can talk to your employees for a potential exchange. For instance, you can agree that in exchange of the expenses, the employee couldn’t leave the company for a couple of years. You can also agree that the employee will lead an upcoming project that could use the information obtained from the professional development activity. As long as it’s fair, your employee will probably agree to it.
Again, your support isn’t only for the employee, but for the company. You don’t want your employees to get stuck at work, and even think about leaving soon. Your support also shows the kind of leadership style that you have.
Photo Attribution:
1st and featured image from https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/professional-development-1280×853.jpg
2nd image from https://elearningindustry.com/how-choose-training-methods-for-employees
