Career development

1. 11 Ways To Improve Employee Development

11 Ways To Improve Employee Development

Indeed Editorial Team
Updated July 22, 2022

The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers,
researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to
deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.

Offering employees the right kind of encouragement and inspiration can give your
organization a reputation for outstanding employee development. With tools and
training, employees are more likely to stay engaged with their company, be happy in
the workplace, do their best work and advance their careers. In this article, we
discuss what employee development is and suggest ways to improve employee
development at your organization.

What is employee development?

Employee development refers to initiatives that expand the skills and knowledge of
employees. Employee development activities that support both personal and
professional growth can create a sense of attachment to and respect for the
organization.

Related: 10 Key Areas of Development for Employees (with Examples and

Tips)

Ways to improve employee development

Here are 11 ideas for improving and encouraging employee development at your
company:

1. Use individual development plans

A conversation with your team members about their individual interests and career
goals can help identify areas for professional and personal development. Taking the
time to discuss this plan can increase employee engagement and accomplishments
while keeping you involved and knowledgeable about your employees' careers.

Related: How to Create an Individual Development Plan

2. Offer professional training

Professional training is just one of the tools that employees need to be successful in
their roles. From onboarding to continuing education, you can create opportunities
that prioritize professional development. There are a variety of virtual and in-person
training tools and techniques your organization can utilize, such as self-paced online
courses or hosting a subject matter expert to deliver a lecture over lunch.

Related: What Are the Different Types of Workplace Training?

3. Remove barriers
Removing barriers like a rigid organizational structure or outdated processes can
help your employees flourish. Today's work force responds to work environments
that encourage change, explore cross-departmental participation and facilitate high
performance training. Growth and development can take place when you allow
employees to use their talents and explore their interests across the company.

Related: Organizational Structure: Definition and Types

4. Provide effective coaching

Workplace leaders can learn how to be coaches by getting to know what motivates
their team, what unique strengths they have and even where they feel challenged.
Asking detailed and intentional questions allows you to to form a connection with
your team members. Here are some suggestions for questions to ask:

 How are you feeling about this project?

 What do you like about the company culture?
 What can I do to help you?
 How can I improve my leadership?
 How fulfilled do you feel in your role?
 What challenges are you struggling with?
 Have you had any successes recently that you want to share?
 What is going well in your role?

Related: Coaching Leadership: How to Become a Coaching Leader and When

to Use This Style

5. Set performance metrics

Leaders can benefit from creating performance metrics to measure current projects
and set realistic goals. Using a specific quantitative metric for performance can help
employees feel accomplished as they meet achievements and set newer goals. This
can empower employees to take on additional tasks or seek out new skills to
continually improve their performance.

Related: 4 Examples of Key Performance Metrics To Track

6. Teach collaboration

Training your team on how to best work together can improve departmental and
cross-departmental collaboration. This can improve project results and support
employees in learning about other aspects of the business. Departments that work
together cohesively often produce better products and customer service, as each
department follows the same company-wide set of expectations.

Related: How to Demonstrate Collaboration in the Workplace

7. Nurture soft skills

Soft skills play important roles both within teams and when interacting with clients.
By assigning collaborative and creative work, you can encourage your team
members to practice important soft skills like:

 Communication
 Time management
 Organization
  Problem solving
 Conflict resolution

Related: How to Improve Your Soft Skills in the Workplace

8. Give constructive feedback

Most employees want to know how they're performing in their role. It's good to
provide positive, honest and constructive feedback to employees regularly, not just
during designated employee reviews. You can use feedback as a tool for growth
and recognition when it's connected to performance metrics, individual development
plans or other opportunities for professional development. It can be effective to tie
feedback to data, specific examples and individual recommendations, as this makes
your suggestions more actionable for the employee.

Related: Best Practices for Giving Constructive Feedback

9. Encourage personal development

It can be easy to only think of employees in a professional capacity, but each

member of your team is human with physical, emotional and intellectual goals. A
holistic approach to employee development can help you support your team
members both professionally and personally. Here are some of the ways in which
leaders can encourage personal development among their team members:

 Physical health: Encourage people to practice self care at work. This might
include allowing team members to take short walks between assignments or
sharing resources about simple office yoga.
 Emotional balance: Meet people's basic needs to for acknowledgment and
validation by asking genuine questions about how they're feeling.
 Intellectual growth: When appropriate, go beyond professional development
and offer resources on topics like personal finance.

Related: How to Set Personal Development Goals for Work (with Examples)

10. Connect with professionals

Connecting employees with other professionals is an excellent way to offer

additional support. Some ways to do this include:

 Providing access to professional contacts

 Introducing employees to mentors or coaches
 Registering employees with professional industry associations
 Sending employees to training courses or workshops
 Creating and hosting networking events

Related: Professional Networking: What It Is and How to Master It

11. Be an example

Model the personal and professional values you want to see in your employees.
When an employee sees their current leader continuing to develop and grow
professionally, it builds credibility and trust. When you nurture a culture of continual
improvement and growth from within, employees will see the value in participating in
development activities.
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29 Areas That Employees

Can Improve On

Areas of improvement for employees

1) Time management

Time management is crucial to your business’s success. Without it, few tasks
would get done on time (if at all). That could be disastrous for everyone involved.

The best solution to this problem is to incorporate scheduling software, like Sling,
into your daily routine. Sling not only helps you schedule when your employees are
going to work, but it also provides a cloud-based to-do list with customizable
deadlines and reminders that will keep everyone on task.
2) Organization

Organization can make time management much easier. When you and your
employees are organized, you’ll know what needs to be done — and in what order
— to get the task at hand accomplished.
Encourage your employees to create a daily schedule of the top three or four tasks
(in order of priority) that they need to focus on. Then help them stick to that list
until it’s finished.

3) Interpersonal communication

It doesn’t matter if you manage a restaurant, a coffee shop, or a call center, you
and everyone else who works there can all stand to improve interpersonal
communication.
Even if it’s just between team members, being clear and direct in what you say
(without offending) will improve the way you work like few other suggestions on
this list.

4) Customer service

Good customer service is the cornerstone of every great business. Even if your
business already has a reputation as a customer-friendly establishment, this is one
area of improvement for employees that you can never spend too much time on.

One of the best ways to improve your employees’ customer service skills is to
demonstrate it in all you say and do. Then encourage your employees to follow
your lead.

5) Cooperation

Unless your employees work by themselves, they’re going to have to cooperate

with others at some point. And for your employees to operate at their full potential
and overcome the obstacles in their paths, they’re going to need the help and
cooperation of those on their team.

6) Conflict resolution

Conflict among employees is bound to happen even in the most well-adjusted

teams. Sometimes, the stress just overwhelms and friction produces a flame.
It’s usually the manager’s job to put out the fire of conflict, but if you can train
your employees to resolve their own disagreements, it will benefit your business
100-fold.

7) Listening

Effective listening — not just hearing — is essential for communication and the
success of your business.
When you foster mature listening skills in all your employees, their productivity will
increase, they’ll make fewer mistakes, and they (and your customers) will be much
happier.

8) Written communication

It’s true that technology has made communicating with others faster and easier.
So much so that we tend to rely on it for everything. That technology, though,
can’t make your employees’ writing better. Sure, it can help catch small spelling
and grammar mistakes, but it can’t improve the quality and clarity of their words.
If your business relies on written communication, consider creating an internal
style book for your employees to use when they’re composing. Make that style
guide available to everyone (perhaps in the employee handbook) and encourage
your team members to refer to it whenever possible.
9) Learning new skills

Unless you’ve got a perfect employee working with you (in which case, we’re going
to poach him or her from you), everyone will benefit by learning new skills. Doing
so not only stimulates thinking and creativity, but it also increases the employee’s
value to your business.

With new skills, you can use team members in different capacities, and they won’t
be a “one-trick pony” who is only good at one thing.

10) Goal setting

To help your employees stretch and grow in the way they work, encourage them to
set and strive to meet new goals.

A surefire way to help your team members reach their goals is to create
an employee development plan they can follow. The development plan acts as a
road map of sorts that shows team members the steps they need to take to
succeed.
11) Accepting feedback and constructive criticism

Feedback and constructive criticism are critical components of improving the way
your employees work. Without it, no one would know what they’re good at and
what they’re not good at.

But accepting feedback and constructive criticism can be difficult sometimes.

Especially when your employees are giving their best. Do your part to make
feedback and criticism as painless as possible, but train your employees to accept
the advice with an open mind.

12) Focus and engagement

A big part of your job as a manager is to keep your team focused and engaged. But
your employees can learn how to improve their productivity and work
performance on their own.
There are plenty of strategies they can employ (many of them the same as you
would use) to keep themselves motivated and on track to succeed.

13) Patience

We all think we have patience. That is, until work gets difficult and we begin losing
our cool at the smallest problem.
If you see your employees facing this situation more often than not, don’t despair.
You can encourage them to improve their patience with a little practice.

When you feel like they might be on the verge of losing their cool, instruct them to
close their eyes, breathe deeply, and slowly count to 10 in their head. This simple
technique can help them restore their patience during even the most trying of
circumstances.
14) Sympathy

Sympathy, in many ways, is similar to compassion toward another person.

If an employee is having a hard time accepting the behavior of a coworker during a

difficult time in their life, encourage them to try to put themselves in the other
person’s shoes.

Once they understand what their coworker is going through, they can begin to see
things from a new perspective. This helps them see why their coworker may be
distracted at work, making more mistakes than usual, or getting irritated easily.

Your employee will realize that these negative traits are not the new norm. The
behavior is just a reaction to an extreme situation. Give them the space and
support they need and they’ll return to normal soon.

15) Flexibility

Whether your employees are dealing with customers or coworkers, flexibility is an

essential trait for all.

At its core, flexibility is about realizing that there are multiple ways to complete
any job. It’s also about being able to adjust quickly to whatever circumstances
present themselves.

For example, employee 1 may complete a task with a specific set of steps (e.g., A
then B then C then D) while employee 2 may choose to complete the task with a
different set of steps (e.g., A then C then D then B).

Employee 1’s way may be more efficient, but it’s the results that really matter, not
the way you obtained them. Help the employee see that it’s the outcome that
counts, and they’ll be more flexible about the process.

As to the second part of flexibility — adjusting quickly — it’s vital in business that
your employees aren’t so set in their ways that they can’t deal with a problem that
wasn’t on their to-do list.

There will always be issues that pull your team away from their plans. Encourage
them to be flexible, deal with the matter, and then return to what they were doing
before.

16) Trust

Working in a business — as an owner, a manager, or an employee — is all about

trust.

Owners have to trust that their managers will guide the business to success.
Managers have to trust that their team will do what’s best for the business, even
without supervision. And employees have to trust that management will support
them when work gets difficult.

Everyone can build trust by always doing what they say they’ll do and fulfilling
expectations, no matter how difficult it may be.
When everyone in your company — from the bottom to the top — trusts each
other, the work environment will be much happier, the customers will notice, and
business will improve.

17) Interest in others

Interest in others means connecting with them on a personal level. The easiest
way to do that is by talking to other people and really getting to know them.

Help your employees convey genuine interest in others by giving them this three-
step process:

1. Ask a question
2. Listen to the answer
3. Ask another question
During the conversation, they should make mental note of names, dates, and
important events in the other person’s life. This may require that they keep track
of pertinent information (i.e., write it down) so they can bring it up later and ask
more questions.

18) Good judgment

Good judgment improves when you look at the world around you, listen to what
others say, and learn from that information.

At first, good judgment may feel like an inborn “gut feeling” about what to do or
how to react in certain situations. In many regards, this is true.

But your employees can improve their judgment by listening to their “intuition”
while at the same time thinking rationally about why they feel the way they do.

19) Leadership

Leadership is an integral part of all business activities. You need to exhibit

leadership amongst your team. And your team members need to exhibit leadership
within the group itself.

Some people are born leaders, while others have to work at it. Regardless of where
your employees fall on that spectrum, you can improve their leadership by
encouraging them to practice the following skills:

 Optimism
 Confidence
 Being a good example
 Giving praise where praise is due
Like all the other areas on this list, the more your employees practice the better
they’ll be. So give them time to practice their leadership skills and you’ll see your
business improve.

20) Honesty

Honesty means telling the truth in good situations, bad situations, and when it’s
not in your best interest to do so.
When everyone on your team is honest in everything they do, the way they deal
with each other will improve and they’ll draw closer together. This, in turn, will
foster trust and help them conquer any problem that comes their way

21) Respect

In many ways, respect is one of the core areas of improvement for employees.
And, really, the concept is simple: Treat others the way you would like to be
treated.

To help employees improve in this area, pose the following question and see how
they respond: If you had a problem, would you want to be dismissed or ignored?
Chances are, they’ll say, “No, I wouldn’t want to be dismissed or ignored.”

Explain to them that the same goes for a customer or client who comes to them to
resolve an issue. This is the start of developing respect for others.

Encourage the employee to work on being respectful at all times — regardless of

the other person’s attitude — by exhibiting the following behaviors:

 Look at the other person while they’re speaking

 Use their name
 Don’t interrupt
 Wait until they’re finished before responding
It can be difficult to show respect in tense, stressful, and antagonistic situations.
But, when your employees focus on doing so, your business will be better for it.

22) Self-control

Showing respect in tense, stressful, and sometimes antagonistic situations requires

that your employees exercise self-control no matter what’s going on around them.

Granted, most people your team members interact with are going to exercise self-
control as well — they’ll keep their voice low, remain calm, and do their best to
communicate in a rational way.

But some people that your team members interact with will do the opposite: raise
their voice, get excited (even angry), and not make a lot of sense when they talk.

Some customers or clients will insult the employee directly. It’s these latter
situations that will demand strong self-control from your team.

Keep in mind — and help your employees understand as well — that the other
person may just want to be heard and that this is the only way they know to make
that happen.

Staying calm and exercising self-control allows the customer or client to vent their
negative emotions without making the situation any worse. In fact, just letting the
other person vent may work to resolve the issue completely.

Granted, it can be difficult to stand there, take verbal abuse, and say nothing, but
doing so can benefit all parties involved.

23) Empathy
The last few areas of improvement for employees have all revolved around the
concept of empathy: being able to sense and understand the emotions of others.

Empathy is very similar to sympathy (mentioned earlier in this article) in that it

involves putting oneself in the emotional space of the other person. But the two
concepts differ in that empathy is being more aware of another person’s feelings
rather than your own feelings.

At its most basic, empathy is the ability to understand the emotions of another
person (e.g., this person is frustrated because they can’t find a way to get what
they need by a certain deadline).

Sympathy, on the other hand, is a feeling you share with another person (e.g.,
you’re sad because the other person is sad).

In a business setting, empathy goes a long way toward helping your employees
understand what your customers and clients need and how your business can help
them solve their problems.

24) Attentiveness

Attentiveness is important among the areas of improvement for employees

because it applies to so many situations — with both customers and team
members alike.

Exercising attentiveness means that your employees:

 Make eye contact

 Listen to what the other person has to say
 Stay engaged in the conversation
 Respond appropriately
When your employees are attentive and focus on the person that’s speaking — be
it you, their teammates, a customer, or a client — they’ll be better able to
contribute to the conversation, express their own ideas, and help find solutions.

25) Determination

Determination is a key component of all business activity because it’s the drive to
complete a task or resolve a problem regardless of how difficult the process
becomes.

In a customer-facing situation, determination is the motivation to go above and

beyond the status quo in order to provide an enjoyable and positive experience.

In an intra-business situation, it’s the motivation to tackle a problem and see it

through to the end despite the work it might require.

Cultivate determination in your team and encourage them to maintain it when the
going gets tough.

26) Positive attitude

Helping your team maintain a positive attitude during the workday is crucial if you
want your business to succeed.
A positive attitude expresses itself in everything your employees do — from
dealing with customers to taking out the garbage to any other task they’re asked
to perform. To encourage a positive attitude in your employees, don’t focus on the
negative. Instead, focus on the positive.

For example, if your team is facing a difficult project or a looming deadline,

generate a positive attitude by getting excited about finding new and unique
solutions to common problems or working hard to finish everything before the
deadline.

Doing so helps your team shift their perspective from viewing challenges as speed
bumps or obstacles to viewing them as opportunities to excel.

And don’t neglect the fact that your positive attitude will most certainly rub off on
your team. If you hold on to that “can do” attitude, your employees will, too.

27) Approachability

No employee is an island. Working together in the same space — or

even virtually — means that it’s all but certain one employee will approach another
employee with a question, concern, or request.
For example, employee A may need to ask employee B about the progress of a
certain task. How does employee B receive employee A? Will employee B — the
one being approached — be brusque, irritable, and dismissive? Or will they be
welcoming and approachable?

Being approachable, open, and welcoming, even when busy, is a quality that builds
a strong sense of team throughout your business.

Train your team to do their best to give their full attention to anyone who comes to
talk with them. And, again, consider the fact that many of these areas of
improvement for employees start with you, their manager. If you’re approachable,
your team will develop that skill as well.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you and your employees have to stop what
you’re doing to be available all the time.
There are times when it’s important to prevent interruptions. In those cases, train
your team members how to deal with these situations — perhaps making an
appointment to talk later — while still preserving the sense of camaraderie in the
business.

28) Problem-solving skills

Working in any type of business means dealing with and solving problems when
they come up.

For example, a manager has to figure out how to best schedule their employees,
how to set up and manage inventory, how to track employees’ work hours, and
how to calculate payroll (just to name a few).
An employee has to figure out how to best interact with customers and clients,
how to complete a given task successfully and to the standards of the business,
and how to get along with their teammates.

Each and every one of these issues demands strong problem-solving skills. Without
them, neither you nor your team would ever get anything done.
Train your employees to be proactive. Perhaps start by meeting to discuss ways to
improve an existing workflow or what problems you can address before they
become major issues.

Doing so can help “prime the pump,” so to speak, and strengthen an employee’s
problem-solving skills for the betterment of your team and your business.

29) Adaptability

We discussed flexibility earlier in this list of areas of improvement for employees,

and, at first glance, that trait and adaptability may seem like the same thing, but
they’re actually very different.

Flexibility means:

Acknowledging that there are a number of ways to get things done

Adaptability, on the other hand, means:

Rolling with the changing circumstances

A high-performing employee needs to be able to adapt their actions to the problem
at hand, the personalities of those with whom they interact, and a whole host of
other variables.
And, in a very real sense, you want your team members to be able to adapt to new
challenges and new opportunities. When you encourage your employees to be
adaptable, you prepare them to handle anything your business throws at them.

One step at a time

Everyone in your business — including you — can improve on at least one skill
from this list. In fact, you and your employees will probably identify several areas
that deserve attention.

Don’t let your employees get overwhelmed if they find that they could, for
example, stand to strengthen their positivity, honesty, and listening skills. They
don’t have to tackle them all at once. Take it one step at a time.

Have them pick one skill they want to improve and work on it for as long as it takes
to become habit. Then have them pick another skill and work on it until it becomes
automatic.

Love what you do

Whether you’re an owner, a manager, a team member, or all three, it’s vital to
love what you do. If you don’t, it’s going to be difficult to generate the drive to
improve. So find the joy in your job.

Once you’ve got that joy, it’s easier to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
From there, you can take steps — or help your employees take steps — to learn,
grow, and improve.
If you find it hard to carve out time for improvement, build learning blocks into
your and your team’s schedule. Software like Sling makes this process simple.
Sling is a workforce management app with a heavy focus on scheduling,
distribution, time tracking, and communication. Its core features include:
 Shifts
 Time Clock
 Messages
 Newsfeed
 Tasks
The Sling suite of tools incorporates all of these features into a cohesive scheduling
tool that helps you create clear, easy-to-read schedules that you can post to the
cloud for convenient storage and distribution.

For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and
schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
See more in: Productivity , Employee Management