Employee Development Ideas to Power Organizational Success

Employee growth and development are essential to building an engaged and productive workforce. Employee development and creating career growth opportunities for employees are strategies to help ensure that your people have the capabilities required to excel in their roles. It’s also about future-proofing your organization so you’re ready for tomorrow’s world of work.

There are more immediate benefits, too. When employees add to their skill set, their employers see higher retention rates and job satisfaction. According to a 2022 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and TalentLMS, 76% of employees say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. Plus, employees can benefit by advancing their careers and deepening their sense of fulfillment at work.

How to help employees grow and develop

While the benefits of employee development are clear, what’s less clear is how you can support growth in your specific organization. Start the process with these tips.

Ask employees what they need. Want guidance on developing employees for future success? Ask the employees themselves. According to a 2024 Strategic Education, Inc. Consumer Survey, 85% of U.S.-based full-time employees know what skills are needed to advance in their current jobs. Find out what skills they want to work on and what learning formats work best for them. Integrate their input with your organization’s needs. 

Offer continuous learning opportunities. In a quickly evolving world, growth and development must be ongoing. Support your people with training, tuition reimbursement, online courses, and more. 

Provide personalized development planning. Collaborate with workers on individualized roadmaps to help them enhance their individual career potential—while also supporting the organization’s overall goals. 

Deliver frequent feedback. If you’re only discussing growth and development during an annual review, you’re missing 364 days of opportunities to help employees grow. Offer frequent feedback through employee-manager check-ins, assessments, and more. 

What are examples of learning and development?

An effective talent development strategy includes multiple learning and development ideas for employees. Each organization may have unique needs based on the competencies it needs to succeed. But no matter what your specific requirements, there are some key professional development ideas that every organization should consider:

• Onboarding: A new employee’s orientation experience is a vital learning opportunity that many organizations can do more to maximize. 
• Industry-specific training: Tailored learning that’s focused on your sector is an important way to sharpen job-relevant skills.  
• Soft skills training: Technical ability matters, but so do skills such as collaboration, creativity, and communication. 
• E-learning: Convenient, flexible, and self-paced learning can fit within an employee’s busy life. 
• Professional certification programs: These allow employees to develop essential skills while gaining a recognized credential.  
• Degree programs: In some roles, a post-secondary degree can help develop skills at a deep level. This is where tuition assistance programs shine: according to one survey, 86% of business leaders agree that their organization’s tuition assistance program is valuable for the organization.*  
• Mentorship: Junior workers can gain life-changing insights by connecting with more experienced colleagues. 
• Job shadowing: Observing coworkers from different teams can help employees expand their perspectives.  
• Cross-training: Encouraging employees to try their hand at new roles can make your people more versatile and adaptable. Nearly half of employees say they are motivated to stay with an employer that supports continued education or the opportunities to cross-train/explore other areas of interest at work, according to a 2024 Strategic Education, Inc. Consumer Survey.  

*Survey published in 2024 and conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and commissioned by Strategic Education, Inc.

What are some career development activities?

Each employee has a unique career journey that requires unique development ideas for work. Check out some common ways to support employee growth in a company. 

• Career counseling: Individualized coaching can help employees explore their career goals within the organization and create concrete plans to make those goals a reality. 
• Stretch assignments: When employees temporarily take on new responsibilities, they can gain important new knowledge. 
• Role expansion: Adding new responsibilities can be a powerful way to grow new skills without necessarily taking on a promotion or new title. 
• Networking: Building a professional network helps employees learn from peers. 
• Leadership development: These programs are designed to develop the skills leaders need most.  
• Professional associations: Association membership can expose employees to new ideas and industry best practices. 

What activities should be in a professional development plan?

A professional development plan is a roadmap for what an employee wants to accomplish, the specific steps they’ll take to get there, and how the employer will support them. Here’s what to include in a development plan: 

Goal setting: Together, the employee and employer identify specific career targets. The key is to find mutually beneficial objectives that help the employee achieve personal goals while also connecting to organizational needs.

Assessments: Evaluate the employee’s skills and abilities to set a baseline for future progress. This could be through assessment tools, observation, or performance discussions. How powerful are assessments? A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 78 percent of HR professionals say the quality of their organization’s hires has improved due to their use of skills assessments.

Career paths: With the employee’s goals in mind, identify the sequence of specific steps and milestones along the way.

Learning and development: Identify learning activities that support the employee’s desired growth trajectory. A 2022 McKinsey survey of frontline employees found that 75% of respondents agree that learning opportunities are an important aspect of career advancement.

Coaching: Individualized support can help employees stay on track toward their goals. Coaches could be direct managers, other internal leaders, mentors, or professional career coaches. 

Tracking and feedback: Objective measurement helps keep everyone accountable. And feedback helps employees know where they stand currently—and how to adapt going forward.

Regular check-ins and adjustments: A career plan should be a living document. Include regular checkpoints to reassess employee goals and organizational needs. 

What does growth mean for an employee?

When most people hear “employee growth,” they may immediately equate it to climbing the corporate ladder. But as employers, it’s crucial to understand the multifaceted nature of employee growth and development. 

Career progression often first comes to mind when thinking about employee growth. And this isn’t wrong. Many employees seek to advance to higher roles—expanding their skills and income along the way. For some, this is a transactional process driven by their desire for economic security or success. For others, it may be about a personal sense of achievement that comes with ascending the organizational ranks. 

For many employees, growth is all about developing new skills. Yes, this may be accompanied by monetary gain. But for these employees, there are also inherent rewards in developing mastery, becoming more adaptable, or deepening their expertise. Some employees view growth in terms of new responsibilities. They value their ability to take on new challenges and grow their influence within an organization. 

Another way to look at employee growth is through the lens of innovation and creativity. For example, a new project or role may challenge an employee to expand their thinking. Employers who tap into this can reap significant benefits for the future of their organizations.

For many employees, advancing their careers may not mean acquiring an elevated title or lucrative role but instead achieving a better work-life balance. This may be particularly important for midcareer workers, who may have children at home or aging parents to support. 

How do you grow and develop your team?

The unique chemistry of a high-performing group can result in positive outcomes that far surpass what individuals can achieve separately. While there’s no sure-fire approach to successful team building, several things that can be done to increase the odds. 

Assess strengths and weaknesses: It’s hard to plan for growth without knowing where you’re starting from. Take time to understand where your team excels and where it needs support. Track key data points to get an objective picture of performance. 

Define roles and responsibilities: One secret of successful teams is that they understand the balance between independent work and collaborative endeavors. Ensure that each member of your team has clarity about their role and how it fits into the bigger picture.

Invest in learning and development: Whether you’re building on strengths or shoring up weak areas, learning and development are paramount. Find room in the budget for employee growth examples such as technical training, higher education, or online workshops. According to one survey, 9 in 10 workers (91%) rate workplace learning as important, with 58% claiming that workplace learning is very important.**

Promote collaboration: Set the expectation that silos are not allowed. And give each team member opportunities to work cross-functionally across the group. The result can be a more adaptable, versatile squad.

Set clear goals: Establish a clear vision for your team—one that ladders up to larger organizational goals. And make sure that your team objectives are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Reward success: To highlight examples of great work and to keep your team motivated, make sure to recognize and reward your team when they reach milestones and achieve goals. 

**2023 online survey was conducted by Atomik Research and commissioned by Strategic Education, Inc. and Vox Global.

How do you give feedback for growth?

Employees can’t learn and grow in a vacuum. That’s why feedback is so important. 

But giving feedback doesn’t come naturally to most managers—especially when it’s negative. Fortunately, with a few growth ideas for employee feedback, you and your leadership team can get better at this essential skill. Here are some other ways to deliver constructive input that your employes can use to improve.

Be timely: Strike while the iron is hot by offering feedback as soon as possible after a positive or negative behavior. This ensures that everyone’s memories are fresh, and it gives the employee more time to adapt. 

Be specific: Telling an employee, “You procrastinate a lot,” isn’t effective. But exploring specific examples of late work could help reveal and address their time management challenges. 

If it’s negative, be discreet: Your all-team meeting is not the place to single out an employee and correct their behavior. Schedule individual meetings or pull employees aside when you have difficult feedback.

Be objective: Feedback should be based on observable reality, not your impressions or feelings about an employee’s performance. Use specific examples or data to inform your discussion.

Focus on the positive: Even when delivering negative feedback, it’s important to highlight areas where the employee is strong. Many leaders use the sandwich method: start with a positive observation, provide your criticism, and then finish with something positive.

Make it actionable: Give employees concrete steps they can take to grow and develop. 

Have a two-way conversation: Feedback should be a conversation in which both parties play a role. When offering feedback, encourage your employees to share their thoughts as well. Do they understand the feedback? Do they feel it’s fair? How will their behavior change based on what they’ve heard from you?

How do you write an employee growth plan?

Without a clear plan, your employee development goals are unlikely to become a reality. To nurture your talent and direct it toward organizational goals, you can take a few important steps:   

1. Review your organization’s goals: Planning starts with knowing what your organization wants to accomplish. What specific business or operational goals do you have? What employee skills would support those objectives? 
2. Understand employee goals: Find out where employees want to take their careers—and look for ways that employee and organizational goals can complement one another.
3. Assess employee skills: Evaluate the level of ability within your employee base. What are areas of strength? Where could additional development help to alleviate weaknesses?
4. Identify development opportunities: Depending on the skills employees need to develop, this could include training programs, higher education, stretch assignments, or mentoring.
5. Create an actionable plan: Based on what you’ve learned about employee goals and organizational needs, craft a specific and achievable plan for employee growth. Include clear milestones, measurement, and timelines.

Discover more ways to support employee development

As we’ve seen, learning and growth can be the most powerful ways to maximize employee potential. With Workforce Edge, you can build a program that’s tailored to your organization’s goals and your workforce needs—while simplifying the process for you and your employees. Schedule a consultation to find out how.