Employee development initiatives are important for retaining valuable employees and ensuring a company maintains its competitive advantage. There are several benefits to employee development, including identifying employee strengths and weaknesses, helping employees meet personal growth goals, and ensuring employees have the necessary competencies to perform their jobs. An effective employee development plan identifies the type of development needed, sets goals, and determines the best approach. There are various types of development initiatives an organization can implement, such as formal education programs, assessments, developing new job experiences through rotations or promotions, building interpersonal relationships through mentoring or coaching, and more. Overall, employee development leads to a more skilled workforce that can accomplish more and helps companies retain top talent.

1. Employee Development Initiatives:Employee Development Initiatives:
Making the Case for Employee DevelopmentMaking the Case for Employee Development
A Presentation by Traci Johnson

2. Why Employee Development?: The Benefits
● Key contributor to a company's
competitive advantage
● Identifies employee's strengths,
weaknesses, and interests
● Helps employees meet their personal
growth
● Helps retain valuable employees who
might leave to join other
organizations
● Necessary for talent management
● Key to ensuring that employees have
the competencies necessary to
perform job duties

3. “Employee development programs make positive
contributions to organizational performance. A more
highly skilled workforce can accomplish more as the
individuals gain in experience and knowledge.
In addition, retaining an employee saves the
organization a great deal of money. One method of
retention is to provide opportunities to develop new
skills. In research conducted to assess what retained
employees, development was one of the top three
retention items.”
(University of Minnesota , 2009, para. 3-4)

4. The Need for an Employee Development Plan
● Identifies the type of
development needed,
development goals, the best
approach for development,
and whether goals has been
reached

5. Types of Employee Development
Initiatives
● Formal Education ● Assessment
● Interpersonal
relationships
● Job Experience

6. Formal Education
● Off-site and On-site Training Programs
● Short Courses Offered by Colleges and Universities
● Executive MBA Programs
● Tuition Reimbursement

7. Assessment
● Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior,
communication style, or skills (Noe, 2013, p.380)
● Identifies employees with managerial potential
● Measure current manager's strengths and weaknesses
● Help employees their tendencies, needs, the type of work environment they prefer,
and the type of work they might prefer to do.
● Help employees decide what type of development goals might be most appropriate
for them.
● Types of Assessments: Personality Test, Performance Appraisal, 360-Degree
Feedback Systems.

8. Job Experiences
● “Relationships, problems, demands, tasks, or other features that employees face in their jobs”
(Noe, p. 386)
● Employees must learn news skills, apply their skills in a new way, and master new experiences
● New Job Assignments = Utilize existing skills while developing new ones
● Job Enlargement = adding challenges or new responsibilities to current jobs
● Job Rotation = Series of job assignments in various functional areas of the company. (Gain
appreciation and understanding of other areas in the company)
● Transfers, Promotions, Downward Moves, Temporary Assignments, Projects, Volunteer Work,
and Sabbaticals
“Positive meaning has been proposed as universal human need, and well-established relationships

9. Interpersonal Relationships
● Interacting with a more experienced employee
● Mentoring = an experience employee helps develop a less experienced
employee
– Both mentor and mentee can benefit from the relationship
– Career and Psychosocial Support
– Provide opportunity to develop interpersonal skills, increase self-
esteem and worth
● Coaching = peer or manager who works with employees to motivate,
develop skills, and provide feedback
“Positive relationships are those that are a generative source of enrichment, vitality,
and learning for both individuals and organizations” (Pace, 2010, p.43)

10. References
● Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York,
NY: McGraw Hill.
● Pace, A. (2010). Unleashing positivity in the workplace. Training and
Development, 64(1), 40-44.
● University of Minnesota (Office of Human Resources): Employee Development
(2009). Located at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/toolkit/development/index.html