Role of Human Resources in Employee Development

Employee development activities refer to initiatives taken by organization and employees to enhance their skills with time and keep themselves acquainted with the latest developments.

Human resource professionals play an essential role in employee development activities.

Human resource professionals play an essential role in creating a culture in organization where every employee takes trainings and employee development activities seriously.

Invite all your employees on a common platform and highlight the importance of trainings and how such initiatives would help employees grow both professionally as well as personally.

It is a common practice that Human resource professionals only interact with the functional heads, managers or team leaders expecting them to pass on the information to their team members. Please avoid such a practice.

Remember, as a human resource professional, you are the face of the organization. Your duty is not just to interact with the managers or supervisors, but with each and every individual who is on rolls of the organization. Employees would only believe you if you sit with them and discuss the challenges they face in their routine work.

Try to find out in what all areas an employee is lacking and what all new skills would help him be an efficient resource. Trust me if you are a little patient, an individual would open his/her heart to you, rather than being candid in front of his/her boss.

Understand that no two employees can have similar needs and requirements. Ideally make a case file of each and every employee. Take the help of their superiors as well. Design relevant training programs for employees which would be of use to them and prepare them to face unforeseen situations with a smile.

Divide employees into groups (Employees with similar needs can be put in one group) according to their training needs and if need be arrange exclusive training programs for them. Do not hesitate if you have to call someone from outside for employee development activities. Trust me; your employees are your organization’s real assets.

It is the responsibility of a human resource professional to motivate the employees to participate in employee development activities. Make them believe that the future of the organization lies in their shoulders only. Make them feel important. Encourage them to upgrade their existing knowledge from time to time to become indispensable resources for the organization.

Employees who acquire new learnings and enhance their skills from time to time would definitely perform better than lazy ones who come just to pick their paychecks. Felicitate employees who perform well. Let others realize their mistakes of not attending training programs, WebEx sessions and any other activities you organized for their development. Give certificates of participation to employees who attend the training programs.

Do not conduct trainings just for the sake of it. Be extremely careful about the contents of the training program. There is absolutely no use of boring speeches and meaningless presentations. Believe me, people might attend such programs once, but will never come back. They will give you thousands of excuses to avoid the same. The content has to be really meaningful and in lines with the requirement of employees.

Encourage two way communication in employee development actitivities.Instruct the trainer to involve the employees well. Give them tasks and ask them to submit the reports within two days. Do give them a deadline.

Employee Development Activities do not always mean organizing training programs, seminars or conferences. Do take your employees out for picnics, get-togethers once in a while. Such initiatives strengthen the relationship between employees and their seniors.

Organize award functions where employees who perform exceptionally well through out the year are appreciated in front of the entire organization. Put their names on their notice boards, office journal and so on.

Ask the award winners to give exclusive interviews and highlight what all extra they did to achieve the position. Believe me; you will not only motivate the award winner but also an employee who did not perform well this time. He would definitely go back, work hard, learn new skills, upgrade his knowledge and dream of winning the award next time.

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