How do you create a working environment where continuous improvement, innovation and initiative are part of everyday life?
As a business leader, you are probably good at delegating responsibility, developing leaders and finding ways to grow the company. All these are of course important aspects of building a healthy and profitable business. But there is another aspect that often falls further down the priority list and that is the ability to engage and enable growth of all employees.
A Gallup poll shows that 87% of millennials (and 69% of the rest of the generation) see development as a high priority when choosing their employers and that it influences how long they choose to stay. That’s enough reason for you as a leader to take it seriously and to start investing even more in promoting opportunities for development. If your employees are developed, they will be more engaged – and it is proven that companies with many engaged employees grow faster and hire more people.
Here are 5 tips for creating a work environment that promotes people growth:
- Increase transparency in the company and give employees a chance to express their thoughts and feelings.
- Set clear goals and directions, reinforced by feedback, recognition and support.
- Strengthen the sense of community where employees experience increased shared responsibility and find common interests and challenges more easily.
- Think beyond formal education. Development does not have to take place in classrooms or through isolated traditional e-learning courses. Instead, create arenas for employees to share knowledge, discuss and learn from each other, where they can discuss trends and find colleagues with similar challenges.
- Make development accessible – think mobile, here and now, social and digital. Reflect how employees learn and develop personally.
Last but not least, the best tip is to create a culture where you celebrate victories but where it is also okay to make mistakes, and make sure that employees also develop by learning from mistakes. Let employees live by the motto “test, evaluate, develop” – that way they will be better at what they do and more engaged, making the company more successful.
#peoplegrowth #learningculture #psychological safety #learnability
Written by Atom Collaboration
