Employee development activities refer to steps taken by an organization in order to encourage employees to constantly enhance their skills with time and upgrade their existing knowledge. Knowledge upgradation is essential to cope with the changing times and unforeseen circumstances. You just cannot apply the same skills everywhere.

One needs to keep himself/herself abreast with the latest developments to survive the fierce competition. Employees should not waste their time in useless gossiping or loitering around, rather utilize their time in reading, surfing internet and gathering relevant information. Find out what is happening new in the industry. Expand your horizons and think beyond routine work and assignments.

Managers/Supervisors play a crucial role in employee development:

Employees need to be motivated to participate in training programs and employee development activities. You need to make your employees realize the importance of employee development activities and how such initiatives would benefit them and organization in the long run.

Managers play an essential role in motivating employees to enhance their skills with time and acquire new learnings.

Work becomes monotonous when employees do the same type of work every day. Managers or supervisors must ensure their team members do something new each day. Make your employees realize that their job is not to come in the morning, mark their attendance, leave on time and receive their paychecks.

An organization’s success is dependent on an employee’s ability to create new concepts and come up with innovative ideas. An employee would be able to think out of the box only when he constantly upgrades his knowledge and abilities and know what is happening around him. An employee with a closed mind can hardly contribute much towards his/her organization.

Managers ought to sit with their team members to find out where they are lacking and what all new skills they need to acquire for an increased productivity. You need to provide the right guidance to your team members. Give them correct feedbacks. Remember, a manager can give correct feedback only when he knows what his employees are upto? Performance monitoring is essential. Review the work of your employees at the end of every month. Suggest them new courses, websites, study materials which would help them enhance their skills and knowledge.

Managers must encourage employees to register for online or distance learning courses to acquaint themselves with new knowledge. As a team leader, you need to give the extra push to your employees to participate in employee development activities.

Respect other’s ideas. Let people come out with new ideas. Information sharing helps in development of employees. Encourage discussions on an open forum where employees can share their views on various topics and gain from each other’s knowledge. A manager can moderate such discussions. Ensure employees do participate in the discussions rather than sitting blank.

Managers ought to design relevant employee development activities as per needs and requirements of employees. Do not adopt a “Hitler like approach” towards your team members. Believe me; they would not bother to listen. Managers must act as mentors for employees. Create an environment in your organization where each employee feels motivated to learn something new each day. Be a good leader to them. There is absolutely no harm if a manager also participates in various training programs. Set an example for your team members.

Managers should ensure to allocate enough resources for trainings (in house or outsourced), team building activities, seminars, conferences, webex sessions or any other employee development initiatives. Do that in the beginning of the year itself to avoid problems later on.

As a manager, you need to provide ample opportunities to your team members to develop and polish themselves. Remember, you need to give some time to your employees so that they can participate in employee development initiatives. If you are always after their lives for results; they would never bother to participate in trainings or self development activities. A manager himself needs to believe in employee development activities for him to convince and motivate his employees to participate with an open mind.