EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

Training & Development

Lecture # 10
Introduction
Development - formal education, job experiences,
relationships, and assessments of personality and
abilities that help employees perform effectively in
their current or future job and company
Comparison between Training &
Development
Introduction (cont.)
Why is employee development important?
To improve quality
To meet the challenges of global competition and social
change
To incorporate technological advances and changes in
work design
Introduction (cont.)
Development activities can help companies reduce
turnover by:
showing employees that the company is investing in the
employees skill development
developing managers who can create a positive work
environment that makes employees want to come to
work and contribute to the company goals
Approaches to Employee Development

Four approaches to develop employees:

Formal education
Assessment

Job experiences

Interpersonal relationships
Approaches to Employee Development

Formal education programs include:

off-siteand on-site programs designed specifically for
the companys employees
short courses offered by consultants or universities,
executive MBA programs, and university programs
Tuition reimbursement - the practice of
reimbursing employees costs for college and
university courses and degree programs
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Assessment
Collecting information and providing feedback to
employees about their behavior, communication style,
values, or skills
Used most frequently to identify employees with
managerial potential, and measure current managers
strengths and weaknesses
Companies vary in the methods and sources of
information they use in developmental assessment
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Most popular psychological test for employee
development
Identifies individuals preferences in decision making,
information gathering, and interpersonal communication
It is a valuable tool for understanding communication
styles and the ways people prefer to interact with
others
Personality Types Used in the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator Assessment
Personality Types Used in the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator Assessment
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Used for understanding things like communication,
motivation, teamwork, and leadership
E.g. By salespeople or executives who want to become
more effective at interpersonal communication
Helps a company develop teams by matching team
members with assignments that allow them to capitalize
on their preferences
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Assessment center - multiple raters or evaluators
evaluate employees performance on a number of
exercises
It is used to identify:
if employees have the abilities, personality, and behaviors
for management jobs
if employees have the necessary skills to work in teams

Types of exercises used include leaderless group

discussions, interviews, in-baskets, and role plays
Examples of Skills Measured by Assessment
Center Exercises
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Benchmarks - instrument designed to measure
important factors in being a successful manager
Items that are measured include dealing with
subordinates, acquiring resources, and creating a
productive work climate
16 skills believed to be important in becoming a
successful manager
For a complete picture, managers supervisors, and
peers complete the instrument
Summary report
Skills Related to Managerial Success
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Performance appraisal - process of measuring
employees performance
Different approaches for measuring performance:
Ranking employees
Rating their work behaviors
Rating the extent to which employees have desirable traits
believed to be necessary for job success
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
The appraisal system must give employees specific
information about their performance problems and
ways they can improve their performance
Managers must be trained in providing performance
feedback
Upward feedback - involves collecting subordinates
evaluations of managers behaviors or skills
360-Degree Feedback System
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Factors necessary for a 360-degree feedback
system to be effective:
The system must provide consistent or reliable ratings
Feedback must be job-related (valid)

The system must be easy to use, understandable, and

relevant
The system must lead to managerial development
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Job Experiences - relationships, problems,
demands, tasks, or other features that employees
face in their jobs
A major assumption is that development is most likely to
occur when there is a mismatch between the employees
skills and past experiences and the skills required for
the job
To be successful, employees must stretch their skills, i.e.
they must be forced to learn and apply new skills, and
master new experiences
How Job Experiences are Used for Employee
Development
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Job enlargement - adding challenges or new
responsibilities to an employees current job
Job rotation - providing employees with a series of
job assignments in various functional areas of the
company or movement among jobs in a single
functional area or department
Characteristics of Effective Job Rotation Systems

Used to develop skills & give employees experience

needed for managerial positions
Used for all levels and types of employees
Linked with the career management process
Benefits are maximize; Costs are minimized
Help employees understand role of job rotation in
their development plans
All employees have equal opportunities for job
rotation assignments
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Transfer - an employee is given a different job
assignment in a different area of the company
Promotions - advancements into positions with
greater challenges, more responsibility, and more
authority than in the previous job
Downward move - occurs when an employee is
given a reduced level of responsibility and
authority
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Externships - employees take full-time, temporary
operational roles at another company
Employee exchange is one example of temporary
assignments in which two companies agree to
exchange employees
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Volunteer assignments offer employees
opportunities to manage change, to teach, to take
on a higher level of responsibility, or to be exposed
to other job demands
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Interpersonal relationships
Mentor - experienced, productive senior employee who
helps develop a less experienced employee (the
mentee)
Mentors provide career support and psychosocial
support to the mentee
Mentoring relationships can also develop as part of a
planned company effort to bring together successful
senior employees with less experienced employees
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Provide opportunities for mentors to:
Developinterpersonal skills, increase feelings of self-esteem
and worth to the organization, and gain knowledge about
important new scientific developments
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Interpersonal relationships
Purposes of Mentoring Programs
To socialize new employees and to increase the likelihood of
skill transfer from training to the work setting
To enable women and minorities to gain the experience and
skills needed for managerial positions
To develop managers for top-level management positions or
to help them acquire specific skills
Group mentoring programs - successful senior
employee is paired with four to six less experienced
mentees
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Interpersonal relationships
Coach - a peer or manager who works with employees
to motivate them, help them develop skills, and provide
reinforcement and feedback
The best coaches are empathetic, supportive, practical, and
self-confident but do not appear to know all the answers or
want to tell others what to do
Approaches to Employee Development
(cont.)
Interpersonal relationships
Three roles that a coach can play:
One-on-one with an employee, providing feedback based
on psychological tests, 360-degree assessment, or interviews
with bosses, peers, and subordinates
Help employees learn for themselves by putting them in
touch with experts who can help them with their concerns
and by teaching them how to obtain feedback from others
Provide the employee with resources such as mentors,
courses, or job experiences that the employee may not
otherwise have access to
The Development Planning Process
It involves:
identifying development needs
choosing a development goal
identifying the actions that need to be taken by the
employee and the company to achieve the goal
determining how progress toward goal attainment will
be measured
investing time and energy to achieve the goal
establishing a timetable for development
Thank you!