Being a business owner is no easy feat. Faced with numerous responsibilities on a day to day basis, we recognise how challenging it can be to complete all the tasks on your to-do list. While business owners must ensure the success of their overall company, there is the understanding that company owners have to also ensure their employees are feeling and working at their best. Knowing what you can do to ensure this is also something that appears challenging, but there are ways to navigate this process.
Detailed within this guide, you will find a list of methods that business owners can use when looking out for the careers of their employees. Whether you are focusing on the rate of development and retention within your business or are looking to implement a training program, read on for more!
1. Lead By Example
When wanting to encourage your employees’ career development and to encourage them to set achievable goals, you should do what you can to lead by example. Setting yourself career goals and doing what you can to achieve them will show your employees that you are also someone who is passionate about their individual success, but also that of the company.
Encouraging your employees to partake in moments of self-reflection and mindfulness provides the opportunity to set career goals while also reflecting on what might have gone wrong or got in the way of any previous goals being attained. Setting aside time to reflect on your career is always recommended, no matter what industry you are in, and is a skill that all workers should develop.
Not to mention, by doing something like this, you present yourself as someone who is relatable and might very well find that your employees come to you with career-based problems, seeking solutions and guidance in what they can do. You want your employees to feel as if they can come to you for advice on subjects relating to their careers, no matter what it might be.
Offering support and guidance to your employees is undoubtedly one way you can encourage their career development and takes us to the following section.
2. Offering Advice, Support and Mentoring
We have the utmost confidence that business owners reading this and beyond are likely to support their employees in all their career endeavours. Ensuring your employees understand whether you operate an open-door policy will go a long way; they will understand if and when they can come to you with anything that is bothering them and how you will be able to assist them.
Supporting your employees in their career development is important. For instance, Qooper offers a career mentoring program for companies to help them have their mentees steer their career path and shape career goals. Using your own experiences and offering advice through this is also recommended; you will be able to bestow upon them knowledge from your experiences and whether they should or should not do something.
At the same time, mentoring your employees in their career development should be something at the top of your list, particularly if you have ample time in your schedule to complete something like this. Finding a mentoring software that you can implement within your business is paramount in this day and age; you want to continue mentoring your employees no matter the circumstance, including remote working. PushFar and other such businesses offer this type of software, and you can learn more about their platform here to discover how it can slot into your business model.
3. Working With Other Businesses
This might not be the first thing you have thought about when wanting to encourage development within your employees, but it is something you should make a note of all the same. Collaborating and working with other businesses is a sure way to encourage your employees to think about their career development and what ways they can improve on this.
Finding what ways other businesses have gone about this process is always useful. You will find out what you should do and what methods are effective, as well as what you should avoid doing. At the same time, should you find a business willing to work with you who offers services relating to career development, establish whether some sort of partnership can evolve.
Networking with these individuals and more should provide not just you but your wider business with opportunities for development and growth. Many employees leave their current employment for numerous reasons; one of the most common includes a lack of growth and development opportunities. Avoid falling into this statistic and retain your employees by offering developmental opportunities.
4. Communicate With Them
Linking closely with our previous suggestions, communicating with your employees is a sure way of encouraging them to follow any career goals that they might have. One of the most popular ways of encouraging career development is getting to the root of what they want to do and working alongside them to ascertain how they will achieve these goals. Not to mention, you will have an opportunity to get to know your employee on a more personal level, further developing the professional relationship that you have.
Communicating with your employees gives you a chance to establish what they want to get out of their careers and what they should do best to achieve their career goals. As mentioned previously, by communicating with your employees, you will be able to offer helpful guidance and advice on what they should do by referring to your own experiences. That is not to say that you will have the answers, but it is something that will certainly help your employee all the same.
Establishing professional relationships and communicating with one another is something that can extend further than just between yourself and an employee. This takes us to the final section of this piece.
5. Team Building and Forging Workplace Connections
Having an established team within your business helps keep things running as smoothly as possible; there is no denying it. Forging these teams and ensuring there is a great deal of teamwork and communication at all times is key, which is where team-building exercises would come into play. By forging these workplace connections, you provide your employees with a network of like-minded individuals they could turn to for help and advice when the time matters. Much like yourself, these individuals will be able to advise and suggest solutions to any career-related issues by using their own experiences and knowledge.
While we recognise this might not be something you think about when wanting to encourage employee development within your workplace, we felt it was worth a mention all the same. Businesses work best when workplace relations are high and animosity is low. Doing what you can to ensure this is the case will go a long way both in the short and long term and provide your employees with a network of people to rely upon during these moments and beyond.
There are various methods you can take a business owner when wanting to encourage this employee development, all of which will have varying success. Knowing what will work best with your business and employees is the best way to navigate this process; there is no one-size-fits-all method. Being individual in your efforts and doing what is best for your business and its employees will go a long way and ensure your company is in top form.