Seven Ways Managers can help Employees Attain Personal Growth
Good pay, respectful interaction, and placing value on the opinions of an employee are excellent
ways to make a work environment conducive. Regardless, some employees may leave your establishment.
And then you may wonder-- what went wrong? In the 21st century, the idea of job benefits has
changed. A large percentage of employees have goals that transcend great pay and a good work
environment(amenities). The experience of managers who lost talents is a cautionary tale and a call
to go back to the drawing board to make adjustments as necessary. Over the years, the desire to
grow and build value is the aim of most employees. They want an enabling job, apparently with good
pay but more importantly a work environment tilting them towards their desired growth. As a manager,
you can facilitate the growth of employees by these seven practical and effective steps.
Trust Your Employees
Toss the idea of getting things done yourself away. Realistically, a manager can't take on all
the responsibilities of a business, a major reason why you employed people to work for you. When
you assign each employee their unique task, give them the freedom to take any approach of choice.
Of course, this doesn't mean you won't oversee their actions to ascertain if it's in line with
the model of the business. Rather, you must refrain from micro-managing their job. Let each
employee creatively proffer solutions and handle responsibilities intuitively. A good measure
of freedom shows you trust employees, and they'll immerse themselves deeply in the role to give
excellent results. Additionally, hand employees performing well weightier responsibility; make
them feel like part of the company's success-- that their quota is essential to the growth and
development of the company. By doing this, each employee tries to handle their role in a way that
shows appreciation for the trust a manager has in them. In the process, they'll seek avenues to
improve skills and indirectly start to build value.
Stay Abreast With the Career Goals of Your Employees
This is very important in any strategy you wish to employ in building the career of your employees.
Interest in your employees and heart-to-heart communications can not be undervalued. Genuine
interest has to come first; without it, you would not be able to initiate heart-to-heart career
conversations. Take the initiative to ask your employees about their career goals and aspirations.
Do well to work out a particular career path for each employee in your business organization.
Then, discuss how attainable this path is. Give incentives for motivation upon attainment of a
particular landmark in the career path.
Employee Learning
In fostering growth, encourage employees to keep learning. It's a twin goal approach that
benefits the employee and the company; the employee builds more skill or added knowledge which
adds to their value, and the company enjoys a better way of handling certain services. Provide
employees with the tools necessary to build additional knowledge, get them access to helpful
courses, or grant them time to learn better. Managers may even set up learning goals to assess
what an employee has achieved within 60-90 days learning period. Keep employees updated with
new industry practices to help them also perform better for the growth of the company. Host
sessions, seminars, or invite speakers, then encourage discussions that center around the
lessons learned from the programs.
Mentoring
Mentoring is cost-effective and a great way to train junior employees. Seasoned workers at a
workplace should take on new and budding workers. Insights in work and related professional
fields are passed on for the benefit of new employees. Mentoring, and training mentioned
earlier, are best introduced at the early stages. Before employees spend few years, they
would have become professionals with ample knowledge adding value to the company.
Rotate Roles
As a manager, learn how to pair workers and rotate their roles. The goal is to allow employees
to work at different but seemingly related departments -- for them to acquire some skills --
without disrupting the usual business operations. Doing this helps to acquire new skills,
understand the general company mission better and build appreciation for the work of others
in the organization. In the long run, a manager not only aids the growth of workers but benefits
the company by encouraging a rapport among employees which healthy for the work environment to
increase productivity.
Work-life balance system
In everything we do, there has to be a balance, otherwise, efficiency and productivity would
reduce in the long run. To maintain a steady run in career development, the balance has to be
applied. Your employees cannot overrun themselves trying to reach their career goals, they
would not be productive enough.
So, managers should work out a time for rest and other non-career activities with their employees.
Help them map out where rest would be needed. Also, encourage flexible work and project patterns.
This would enable your employees to be refreshed; thereby, increased productivity suffices. In
some cases, an organization may relax some policies to allow employees to work in a way that
supports the lifestyle they want; this calls for flexibility.
Give your employees insight into the value of their work
Here, do not just assume that your employees already know the value of their particular work.
Point to specific instances in which their contribution has advanced the organization. This
motivates your workers to improve their skills and become better. Do not also downplay the
importance of commendation
Conclusion
All these strategies would help your employees to be productive and carry out their jobs
effectively. In the big picture, you are painting, your employees are building their career
skills and professionalism.