The company has prospects, but employees leave for growth elsewhere. You motivate the burned-out with a promotion, but it doesn’t help bring back the “burning eyes.” Employee wants to grow, but ignores training. These situations may sound familiar to both an online casino owner and a businessman opening a flower store. Let’s break down why this happens and how to fix it.
Not Revealing All the Cards
Usually, employees only know that development in the company is possible. But they do not know the details: what scenarios are possible to develop, what skills are necessary and what training is required to move to a new position. These details are available only to HR specialists and managers.
The lack of information makes the future of the company seem foggy to the employees. Typical fears prevail: will there be a development or are these just standard promises, and what if the development option offered by the company is not suitable? When you find yourself in such an unknown situation – there is less motivation to try, just in case, you monitor vacancies and look for something more.
If the employees have access to details about the development, the future of the company will become tangible for them. Anxiety will disappear, and the focus will shift from searching for a more promising job to productive work here and now.
Training in Silence
At the start of training, tell employees about its benefits: how the new knowledge and skills will help in the workplace, and what valuables for their career will be added to the resume.
Give feedback during and after training. Even if it seems that the employee himself understands that since he was promoted and there are no remarks, it means that everything is fine. The function of feedback is to strengthen the understanding of who you are, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Understanding yourself makes it easier to work: you allocate your time wisely, you consciously pump up your skills, and you just feel more confident.
Gathering feedback from employees is also important. Is the training program clear, was it enough to prepare for the new position, was it convenient to combine training with work, and was the knowledge useful? Answers to these questions will help make the development process more comfortable and effective.
Developing According to the Standard Scheme
Everything is logical: if a person comes to work in a sales department, then develops him/her into a senior salesman, and then a manager. But sometimes the logic needs to be changed. It may turn out that the decision to go into sales was only temporary, because they wanted to try something new, or they needed to survive the crisis. And in general, the employee has a different specialization or has talents that will be useful in another department.
To develop employees not only according to the standard schemes, but you also need to know them well. What are they into and how seriously have they thought about changing their profession, what non-core skills do they possess? Individual approach is more labor-intensive (collection of information, organization of storage, analysis), but it allows you to make jewel-like personnel moves.
Only Growing Vertically
Another erroneous standard in development is raising employees only vertically, that is, to management positions. Employees who don’t want to manage, end up being undeveloped. It’s unclear where to grow them and what it will bring. At the same time, the company needs strong mid-level specialists who could be mentors, and experts, and work independently or with special clients.
The way to cover the needs of both parties is horizontal development. This is growth to weighty positions without administrative tasks. Strong specialists without managerial ambitions get an opportunity to realize themselves, and the company gets a powerful medium staff.
React to a Burnout Development
Many people see burnout as a signal: you’ve reached your ceiling and it’s time to move on. Employees ask for a raise or to try something new, and the company goes out of its way to help with valuable burnouts. But burnout at work is not always due to work-related reasons. A person can be exhausted by outside stress: repairs, family problems, a pandemic. It is difficult to work in a burned-out state, work becomes annoying.
Each case of burnout should be dealt with separately: what has exhausted the employee? Probably, someone needs help to restructure the work processes, they are outdated and that is why the work is tiring and not enjoyable.
