Suggested actions
Actions suggested by the organization
Create your own action
Create a specific and practical developmental plan/identify critical competencies for current and future roles for each employee. Communicate these competencies to employees to empower them to take charge of their careers, direct personal development, and continually self-evaluate and improve.
Ensure that, even in informal situations, you take the time to praise and recognize the achievements of your colleagues. Always check in with colleagues to ensure they understand specifically what the praise and recognition is for– this is crucial to help colleagues and the whole team understand what good performance looks like.
Ensure that, even in informal situations, you take the time to provide feedback in a constructive, coaching-oriented manner. This involves linking the feedback to the colleagues' development. Always check in with colleagues to see what they have taken from the feedback provided – this is crucial to building trust.
Take a personal interest in the development of your colleagues – mentor and coach high performers, and understand the reasons why some colleagues do not appear to develop knowledge and skills as quickly as others. Ask yourself if there are any actions you could take to help the career development of your colleagues.
Meet with your manager to develop your own career plan. Use this process to learn about the steps involved and what about the process is motivating and interesting. You can use this experience to create a good career planning experience for your colleagues.
Learn more about training programs that support the development goals of your employees. Develop meaningful training and development goals for employees; as necessary, seek advice from Human Resources to develop meaningful goals for employees.
Set an example. Pursue your own development actively and openly. Share your experiences with your colleagues.
Let employees know which elements of performance will have the most impact on compensation.
Clearly communicate to employees the performance levels required to advance to specific positions. When communicating a promotion to your group, cite specific examples of the employee’s work that led to the promotion.
Identify employees who perform their jobs well and provide public and/or private recognition.
Hold meetings throughout the year with each employee to discuss performance. Provide ongoing feedback and coaching. Ensure employees are scheduling quarterly discussions and make time for those discussions.
Vary the types of praise and recognition behavior so that it appropriately aligns with the activities deserving praise and recognition. Use individual recognition as appropriate and save public recognition for particularly important achievements.
Work with your employees to clarify their personal training and development goals. Discuss their current strengths and weaknesses. Encourage ambitious but realistic goals, identify training opportunities. Incorporate actionable development plans.
Identify internal training resources available to your employees. Identify training opportunities in other departments that your employees could benefit from.
Work with Human Resources to fill in any current gaps in the training of new hires. Understand some of the training resources that are available for new employees (internal or external) and how to utilize them.
Consider assigning all new hires an informal functional buddy to assist in the on-boarding process and to fill in the gaps not covered in new hire training.
Schedule time in the work calendar so employees can take advantage of relevant training opportunities.