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Many people believe that their learning curves come to an end the moment they complete college. The truth, however, is that learning is a never-ending process. The day you enter into the workplace, you realize that the process is far from over. In fact, the actual process of learning begins when you step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself to conquer new and bigger milestones.
Career development and training are two of the most vital aspects of an employee’s professional life. In fact, employee training and development happens to be of utmost importance to both the employee and the employer. Fortunately, you can develop an efficient and user-friendly employee development plan.
What Importance Does It Hold?
Nothing in life is constant, especially in business. Now, this might sound extremely naive and obvious. Newer and innovative ideas are like blood. They help keep the business up and running. Newer products and plans are needed if you want your business to survive and prosper.
Employee training and development forms an important part of your business strategy. If you’re not providing adequate training to your employees, then you’re at risk of being overpowered by your competitors.
How Does It Help?
Leads to Enhanced Productivity
It goes without saying that a group of informed employees will help the organization’s overall productivity. If your workforce stays up-to-date with all the latest developments taking place in the world of business, then they’ll be able to work much more efficiently.
Take this for an example: You’ll have to provide adequate training to your workforce if you plan to replace your old accounting software with a new one. Don’t expect your employees to master it in a day or two. Everybody takes his/her own time to get used to things.
Provide them with eLearning modules that throw ample light on the software’s features and limitations. Tell them about the shortcuts that can be used. Provide them with links to videos and guidebooks. In case you want to showcase everything step by step, then videos can be immensely helpful.
Improves the Level of Engagement
An effective training program is the one that addresses the needs of all your employees in relation to the work they do. Additionally, it helps you nurture talent. The basic idea is to understand ‘who can do what?’
Training modules and resources help your employees learn new skills. Having a highly-skilled workforce is the first and foremost step towards attaining organizational goals.
Creating the Ideal Employee Development Plan (EDP)
Creating a comprehensive and user-friendly employee development and training plan isn’t difficult. Before developing your program, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is the program being developed for?
- What purpose does it have and problem does it solve?
- Can it be understood by everybody?
Simply put, you need to ascertain where you are and where you want to be.
Also, it will be useful to keep the following points in mind before developing an EDP
1. One Size Won’t Fit Everybody
Thinking one program will work for every employee is the most basic mistake you can make. Different people have different requirements. Imposing a single and standardized plan to cater to everybody’s needs doesn’t do any good.
It goes without saying that certain groups within the program would have similarities. Not every single thing can be unique, right? You just need to make sure that the requirements of various individuals within your organization are being met.
2. Identify Specific Needs
As stated earlier, you have to be specific. Identify what your employees need and prepare a plan that caters to all of those needs.
3, Don’t Rush
The approach needs to be flexible. Bring employees together and give them ample time to experiment and learn. Nothing will happen overnight. Just let the learning process take its own time.
4. Tracking the Progress
Bombarding your employees with countless training modules won’t help them. Instead, give them one module at a time and monitor their progress.
To Draw the Curtains
The bottom line is: A good Employee Development Plan (EDP) can only be developed if and when the developer steps into the shoes of the user. No matter how creative and well-developed the plan is, if your user cannot understand it, it’s useless.
