Talent development initiatives — or activities and tasks that contribute to an employee’s learning and growth goals — are incredibly important, especially as hiring the perfect candidate becomes more difficult. Recently, there has been a lot of uncertainty with the economy along with the workforce due to layoffs. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to ensuring talent is developing within an organization, it’s helpful to break down the most effective introductory steps HR leaders can take to develop talent. Here are four pillars HR leaders can focus on to ensure they are doing everything they can to properly contribute to talent upskilling.
- Coach employees based on individual needs
Every company’s employees have different wants and needs based on many factors, including but not limited to work culture and geographic location (or lack thereof in the case of remote-only workplaces). So, what works for one company is not guaranteed to work for the next. Similarly, every employee’s talent development needs will differ. This is why leaders at all levels need to understand they are the foundation of coaching and development. Most employees know what they need to improve, but they are not exactly sure how to do so. Leaders must work with these individuals one-on-one to create a plan of action. This is also a perfect time to review career goals and ensure employees are set up for success as they climb the organizational ladder.
- Create time for personal development alongside professional growth
We’ve all heard the term you learn something new every day. While it may sound impossible for leaders — or their direct reports — to learn something new about each other daily, they should both make an effort. Leaders should take the first step by pushing beyond baseline conversations about an employee’s career goals. Instead, or in addition to these conversations, leaders should gather a sense of who the employee wants to be outside of their nine-to-five. When employees take a step toward completing their goals, leaders should take time to celebrate them, even if it’s as small as writing an encouraging note. In follow-up meetings, leaders should ask their direct reports what they learned from their developmental experience, if there were any roadblocks they needed to overcome, how they overcame them and what their next step will look like.
- Stop assigning tasks just to assign tasks
Nothing is worse than busy work, especially when there’s no rhyme or reason why such tasks need to be completed. It’s important for leaders to communicate the critical nature of mundane tasks when it comes to an employee’s skills development or role-related responsibilities. Likewise, it’s important for employees to understand why they are doing a specific job and feel as though they were able to accomplish something meaningful. And in some cases, leaders may be able to do away with busy work entirely and opt to provide high-level initiatives for their direct reports to complete.
- Use problems as a learning opportunity
Every loss can be a learning experience, and every problem or mistake can be used as an opportunity to further professional development. Leaders should cultivate a culture where employees don’t feel as though one mistake will lead to them having to pack up their desks.
Sure, mistakes should be avoided, but they are not the end of the world. In fact, they are incredibly common in the workplace, even and especially at high-performing organizations. Failure is part of the process. Leaders who use mistakes as a learning tool set up their workforce for continuous success.
Everyone’s idea of developing talent is different. However, using these four basic steps for talent development can positively impact almost any organization. Recruiters and hiring managers have already completed the heavy lifting by hiring great employees who are eager to learn and grow. Now it’s time for leaders to ensure their employees are supported while they develop throughout their careers.
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