A business owner should be aware that employee retention is an imminent threat to businesses worldwide. With changing times, the employees now have more influence than ever in their relationships with management and employers. More than 60 percent of workers believe they can use this influence to their advantage through benefits and wage negotiations.

An effective way to keep employees committed and satisfied is by providing growth and professional development initiatives. Udemy, an online course provider, found that 42 percent of employees believe that learning and development were the decisive factors when choosing where to work.

By making sure that your employees find growth and development through your strategies, business owners in Perth and anywhere else in the world can mitigate employee turnover and enhance productivity. Here are six ways to support employee growth and development in the workplace.

Encourage Coaching and Mentoring

An excellent way for businesses to support their employee's professional development and growth is via coaching and mentoring programs. The current workforce has changed, and employees don't always respond well to orders and demands. On the other hand, employers must find ways to work in tandem with their employees, just like a coach or mentor.

To encourage employees' safety and health at work, employers should make it necessary to learn the importance of first aid. Employers are devising courses to ensure workers’ growth along with their safety. For instance, by understanding the emergency skills with a First aid course perth employees of an organization can help each other when met with an emergency. Also, with this learned skill, if a mishap happens in the workplace, home, or any other place, you don't have to be a helpless bystander. And this is why it's crucial to have a fundamental knowledge of first aid.

Additionally, managers should be friendly with employees and ask if they need help, and they should enjoy the opportunity to pass on skills to their workforce. However, in most cases, professional training and development fall on one's direct supervisor - so encouraging a culture of coaching and mentoring is a perfect way to promote employee development.

Administer Cross-Departmental Training Programs

Organizations today are becoming more and more complex. Whether you function as a front-line sales executive or a production manager, there is value in understanding how every unit functions.

Thus, businesses can support employee development by helping them learn from cross-departmental training programs. Additionally, breaching these departmental barricades can strengthen communication from one unit to another, thus enhancing your organization's productivity.

For example, the customer service department usually notices a common issue in consumer complaints. If there is a lack of communication between the customer service department and the production team, that issue might not surface as quickly as it should.

Cross-departmental communication can educate your workforce about different business segments while also improving communication among various departments of your organization.

Give Rewards and Recognition

If you want to encourage employees' growth and professional development, you must first keep them happy and motivated. This begins by devising a company culture that recognizes and rewards employees for their exceptional work.

When you provide your employees with rewards and recognition, they get motivated and become more loyal towards your company - two main driving forces behind employee development. Additionally, when workers feel appreciated and their endeavors recognized, it enhances productivity. A study also shows that workers rewarded for their efforts are seven times more likely to be absorbed with their official duties.

Also, recognition and rewards are perfect ways to motivate your workforce to grow with the business. While monthly or quarterly awards are a good idea, consider spontaneously recognizing your employees' efforts.

Give Feedback in Real-Time, Not Just During Annual Reports

According to a business-related study, more than 90 percent of workers would appreciate their supervisor addressing learning mistakes and opportunities in real-time, not just during annual reports. Companies that do not benefit from continuous feedback should not expect employees to grow in the domains in which they struggle.

Being familiar with your weaknesses is crucial in personal and professional development. Businesses need to enforce processes that help the managers regularly assess and organize their workforce's strengths and weaknesses. To get better results from employees, managers need to convey the results on a timely basis which could be weekly, monthly or quarterly.

This continuous evaluation and communication procedure provides a feedback loop that lets employees know the areas of improvement and developmental areas that can improve their aptitude and performance.

Recognize and Develop Soft Skills

Soft skills include personal and non-technical skills that push you towards success in your career. These skills include delegation, time management, communication, and active listening. Organizations that provide training and educational resources to improve workers' soft skills can enhance the productivity of their entire team - rather than a single employee.

Astonishingly, soft-skill development and training is something that many business owners lack to provide their employees with. Because most organizations promote their high-performing employees to managerial positions, even if they lack training, proper management skills, or experience required for a particular position.

A 2016 study by Grovo revealed that more than 85 percent of managers wish they had more training before they were asked to lead.

Employe a Learning Management System (LMS)

With a learning management system (LMS), organizations can offer employees a scalable professional growth and development solution. As the name suggests, LMS are applications that allow businesses to create, store, report, and deliver developmental programs and educational resources.

Additionally, LMS software provides companies with an alternative solution to manually create, manage, and deliver training courses and materials. Instead of investing valuable resources in training the new hires with ineffective training programs, organizations can employ an LMS software that moves that training into an eLearning platform. Besides streamlining the employee training, LMS allows organizations to provide employees with consistent training material that upholds their quality standards.

To Sum it Up

To deal with employee turnover and declined productivity, business owners in Perth must get creative to engage workers and increase their loyalty. Skill development and employee growth initiatives are two enduring strategies that provide the groundwork for enhanced employee experiences. If a business owner wants to invest in anything in 2022 and beyond, it should be in the most valuable asset - the employees.

‍