EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT, a KEY PRIORITY

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT, a KEY PRIORITY

IN 2013, EMPLOYERS NEED TO LAY MORE EMPHASIS ON EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT THAN EVER BEFORE, SAYS PALAK BHATIA

    The New Year inevitably brings with it a new action plan - an array of goals, visions and the modus operandi to achieve these. Employee development is one of the highlyprioritised aims for organisations in the coming year. Employees make up for the most vital assets of an organisation and their satisfaction as well as engagement are essential for high productivity. Employee development programmes inculcate a wholesome growth, both in a professional’s career and personality. Let us explore how companies are planning the same in 2013.
    Kamal Karanth, MD, Kelly Services India, tells us how employee development is different from mere employee training, “Although employee training and employee development are similar in the methods used to foster learning, their timeframes differ. Training is more present-day oriented; its focus is on individuals’ current jobs, thus enhancing those specific skills and abilities to immediately perform their jobs. Employee development, on the other hand, generally focuses on future jobs in the organisation. As your job and career progress, new skills and abilities will be required. As you are groomed for positions of greater responsibility, employee development efforts can help prepare you for that day.”
    Recent years have witnessed a spike in the importance bestowed on employee development. Rajesh Rai, director- HR, Expedia India, tells us why 2013 is such a year, “Business challenges have been growing multifold and today, the office environment offers a myriad set of unique and complex challenges due to the fluctuation in the economy. Also, there is more emphasis on adding business value to get the requisite return on investments. To prepare employees for these challenges, proactive development is the key and hence, its increased importance today is gaining a lot of prominence.”
    What should be kept in mind while planning employee development in the coming year? Meenal Sinha, country head - India, Imperial Servcorp says, “It cannot only mean sending employees for workshops and seminars – it’s not a responsibility that can be simply ‘outsourced’. Grooming people for enhanced responsibilities and the next-level has to become a culture-inherent process. A senior manager’s KRA must include team training and development, not only in structured environments, but also on an ongoing day-to-day basis. This needs to be coupled with the freedom to explore new areas and some latitude to make decisions, with the assurance that ‘learning mistakes’ are tolerated. The feeling that my organisation wants me to grow and that my seniors are willing to backstop for me as I learn are two of the sharpest development tools that we can find. We need to work within a framework of cross-functional and cross-location exposure that allows everyone to understand how the cogs in the wheel connect and how they plug into the whole and keep the machine running.”
    Kamal Meattle, CEO, Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology Incubator Park, tells us how employee development can work wonders in employee engagement and retention, “Encouraging employees to acquire new or advanced skills and knowledge by providing them with training facilities and avenues where such new ideas can be applied can be very beneficial for engagement. Training programmes allow employees to interact with one another, discuss ideas and learn more about a given topic, which encourages active participation on-the-job outside of the training environment as well. Their increased productivity leads to financial gains and better retention.” Thus, employee development is a huge area of focus for 2013 in organisations and must be emphasised upon for better employee productivity.