Benefits of Employee Development for the Employee and the Employer - Literature review Example

? Employee Development goes here] goes here] Benefits of Employee Development for the Employee and the Employer Introduction Employee development is a kind of strategy that employees and employers adopt to increase employees’ knowledge, talents, and expertise in particular areas they work in. It is important for an employer to create a balance between the employees’ individual career objectives and organizational milestones, in order to achieve successful employee development. Flourishing employee development programs and strategies guarantee improved employees’ performance, which leads to higher productivity and overall organizational success in the competitive market. Employee development leads to employee motivation and job satisfaction. A growth-oriented workplace culture works on improving small occurrences so that overall growth is guaranteed. Growth relates to each and every employee at the workplace. The development in the quality of existing employees’ skills and the quantity of skilled workers leads to overall organizational growth. The most precious asset that a company may cherish is its employees, and it needs to be seriously concerned with all issues that may dissatisfy, frustrate or depress them. Without happy employees, no strategy is going to work, and no progress will be seen in the long run. Also, employee development programs result in job retention which is necessary to save organizational finances. Opening new opportunities for employees, so that they can develop expertise, makes them stay happy with their jobs. This can be done through training and learning sessions, along with providing such avenues to employees where they can practice new ideas. In this paper, we shall discuss what research suggests about the benefits of employee development, both for the employee and the employer. Discussion Gallie et al. (2010) describe in their research how teamwork can be used as a strategy to enhance employees’ skills and, ultimately, organizational success. They have explained the benefits of teamwork in task discretion, skill development, organizational commitment, discretionary effort, and employee welfare. Talking about employee development, they state that teamwork creates such an environment in which employees can learn new skills and competencies. This is because the employer distributes tasks on multi-functional basis, requiring different people with different skill sets. This system of work organization requires employees to work on a collaborative platform on which they share their ideas, and get motivated by each other’s talents and capabilities. This makes them bring the best out of their skills to accomplish the tasks assigned to them. Constructive criticism, feedback, and further appreciation motivates them, leading to successful employee development. The researchers found that employees, who were the participants of their research, stated that their jobs required them to learn and help other employees learn new things, when they worked in semi-autonomous or self-managed teams. Ellinger et al. (2008) prove our thesis statement in their research, by stating that employee development strategies, such as training, coaching and empowerment, lead to successful employee development that is beneficial to both the employees and the employers. They conducted their research on 123 logistic service provider firms using multi-survey design methodology, and found that firms which employed employee development programs performed better than those which did not value employee development. They emphasized that service-related training is the most important thing that improves employees’ skills. Training, which occurs after orientation, is a process in which employers intend to enhance employees’ performance through teaching them new skills and competencies, with the use of which, they can enhance their performance in their job areas. Training modifies the thinking of employees, and is a never-ending process. It makes employees efficient and resourceful. Training also familiarizes them with organizational rules and regulations, along with enhancing their knowledge about higher level jobs in case they are to be promoted. Employees learn changes in technology and working conditions through training. Bourg et al. (2010) studied, in their research, the importance of coaching in employee development, and determined its relationship with business success. They conducted their research on Agilent Technologies, Inc., which was not getting the desired results with their Six Sigma Green Belts. The company already had a good training program with necessary instructional tools. However, the quality advocates reported that there was need for proactive coaching to reach maturity and gain recognition in industry. Thus, a Six Sigma project was initiated that fulfilled two purposes, (1) to start proactive coaching process with all desired tools and technologies to reach affective maturity, and (2) to maintain the coaching process in such a way so as to reduce disparity in its quality and efficacy. The researchers studied the four-step coaching process initiated by the company, which was helpful in understanding what kind of proactive coaching is required to achieve business goals well in time. Hence, we see that nearly all researchers have considered coaching as an important aspect of employee development. Coaching helps engage and retain talented employees. Visagie and Kruger (2011) discussed, in their empirical study, the importance of mentoring in employee development, and its relationship with organizational success. They stated, after interviewing 10 participants who were all mentors, that mentoring relationships in the pulp and paper industry in South Africa proved to be the key factor in achieving business success. The mentoring program was based on the participants’ perceptions. The researchers stated that although the employers initiated mentoring, it was important for the employees to understand the significance of mentoring relationships. They also described the characteristics of a good mentor: he must be knowledgeable, experienced, and approachable. Such mentors are beneficial for the industry, and also for their employees. Hence, we see that mentoring, which involves learning about overall career development, is one of the key areas of employee development, apart from coaching (regular meetings between the managers and employees to discuss required skills); counseling (sorting out employees’ personal problems that are keeping them from showing their best); teaching (giving employees knowledge about communicative, inter-personal, problem-solving, and professional skills); and, training (enhancing employees’ learning about skills and competency). All of these employee development areas need to be considered to achieve unbeaten employee development. Maurer and Lippstreu (2008) committed a similar research in 2008 which determined the relationship between employee development and employee commitment to organization. They stated that organizational support for employee development affected employee development depending on employees’ learning and performance goal orientations. They used a two-wave internet survey sampling method to survey 651 employees from the US workforce. They found that when the employers of the organization supported their employees in learning new skills and competencies, the employees showed greater commitment to the organization. Surprisingly, they found that there were very few employees who took this support negatively, which lead to their decreased work commitment. However, they stated that it was a well accepted truth that organizational support was directly proportional to employee commitment. Employee development programs have always been one of the best sources of attraction for employees, because they help increase employee retention, which is beneficial for the employers. Hence, organizational support is necessary. Let’s peep further into literature that supports the fact that employee development benefits employees and employers, and improves organizational performance. Jacobs and Washington (2010) described the benefits of employee development programs, stating that these have a very positive effect on organizational performance. According to them, employee development is an important field from HRD perspective. Employee development helps employees become motivational leaders. Development program activities prove very beneficial when they are surrounded by career plans and goal determination. Moreover, employee development plans must be strong, substantive, consistent, flexible, well-built, real-world based, comprehensible, and easy to steer and control. The researchers state that employees will always reach success if they have a good development plan. An employee development plan is a step-by-step strategy that helps employees in achieving their goals. Their strengths are raised to the highest levels of potential and competency. Enhancing strengths and eliminating weaknesses are important steps in improving employee performance, and therefore employee development programs are a must-have for organizations that strive to achieve competitive advantage in the industry. Kumar, Kumar and Sitaram (2011) discussed the importance of employee development after restructuring of an organization. They state that when an organization restructures itself, like changing of ownership or structure when it enters into a merger with another organization, it must think about the development of its workforce in order to be successful with the new business objectives. The new management must give significant importance to value-based HR processes in order to develop its employees. Employee development, at this stage, must include performance appraisal, training, and career development guidance. The organization under study employed all these areas of employee development, and saw increased employee performance and job commitment. In turn, the employers benefitted from the motivated work force that converted the loss-making entity into a profit-making entity within a few years. Hence, we learn from this study that productivity and satisfaction are two of the most important outcomes of employee development that are advantageous both for the employees and the employers. Also, employee motivational techniques, which include benefits, performance appraisals, employee recognition, feedback, rewards, and compensations, are important aspects of employee development. These techniques create intrinsic and extrinsic employee motivation which is necessary for the employees to enhance their learning and skill sets. Sarwar, Azhar and Akhtar (2011) studied the effect of training on social relationships of employees. Training is one of the key employee development areas. They have determined the relationship between the structured or unstructured training patterns with formal or informal social relation networks. They state that employers are employing training methods to train their employees in such a way that they perform well enough to please their customers. Off-the-job training, on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring, group/lecture training, and computer-based training (CBT), are some of the training patterns that are meant to improve the competencies of employees, so that they help the employers accomplish their milestones. The researchers studied the effect of these training patterns on social relationship of employees. They state that economic relationships arise from effective use of resources; political relationships arise from the hierarchy of relationships with the organization; affective relationships arise from a sense of belonging to each other in the organization; and, cognitive relationships result from dependencies among employees occurring from learning. These relationships are beneficial for employees and employers because of the development of harmony in the work place. There is a lot of research that suggests that employee developmental activities are directly related to organizational success. Blau et al. (2008) presented a model, which was later tested on 197 medical technologists during the course of four years, showing hypothesized common and parallel antecedents of employee organizational development activity (ODA) versus professional development activity (PDA). A common antecedent was expected to affect both ODA and PDA, while a parallel antecedent was expected to affect its matching work referent. The researchers found that organizational development activity reduced the employees’ unwillingness to stay on job, or in other words, it improved job retention. However, professional development activity did not have a significant effect on job retention. This means that organizational development activity, which includes training and coaching, have a positive effect on employee retention, thus benefitting the employers at the same time. Koster, Grip, and Fourage (2011) studied whether support from the organization regarding employee development affected employee turnover or not. In other words, they found whether or not training investment affected employees’ willingness to stay on job. They conducted their research on a sample of 2833 Dutch pharmacy assistants. They found that, as envisaged by human capital theory and social exchange theory, the participation of employees in general training discouraged their intention to quit their jobs. When employers arranged training sessions, this increased the perceived support in employee development (PSED). Thus, PSED improved job retention by decreasing employees’ intentions to quit. PSED also increased job satisfaction. This study was helpful in understanding the importance of organizational support in employee development. When employers strive to train, coach, and mentor their employees, they actually strive to improve the potential of the employees, which benefits them in turn. Employees with high potential tend to work harder because they have enough motivation to learn and excel. They help their employers to increase productivity and achieve customer satisfaction. The researchers state that organizational support guarantees improved turnover behavior among employees, because they want to stick to their jobs when they find that their employers are there to value their strengths and eliminate their weaknesses through proper training. This creates a trustworthy relationship between employees and employers, which also results in reduced workplace conflicts. Conclusion To conclude, literature and research suggests that employee development is very beneficial for employees and employers. Employee development includes such motivational strategies that help the employees to enhance their skills and competencies. Important outcomes that are beneficial for employees include job satisfaction and improved performance. Outcomes that are beneficial for employers include employee retention and increased productivity. All of these outcomes are very important in achieving organizational milestones. Development strategies include coaching, counseling, training, mentoring, and teaching. Through these strategies, employees learn new skills like interpersonal skills, communicative skills, professional skills, and problem-solving skills. These skills are important to make employees turn from beginners to motivated leaders. In short, employee development guarantees overall organizational success. Organizations succeed when they consist of such employees who not only want to recognize their weaknesses, but also want to eliminate those weaknesses and improve their strengths through training and coaching. When employees know that they can bring the best out of their capabilities through learning and practice, they prove to be a beneficial asset for the organization. Also, when employers know that the best way they can boost their employees’ talents is the implementation of employee development plans, they will work hard to develop such strategies that guarantee employee growth and retention. Hence, employee development is a win-win game both for the employees and the employers, because both benefit from the development of employees. References Blau, G., Andersson, L., Davis, K., Daymont, T., Hochner, A., Koziara, K., Portwood, J., & Holladay, B. (2008). The relation between employee organizational and professional development activities. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72(1), pp. 123-142. Bourg, J., Stoltzfus, W., McManus, S., & Fry, P.J. (2010). Proactive coaching for employee development and improved business results. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(10), pp. 1005-1016. DOI: DOI:10.1080/14783363.2010.487705 Ellinger, A.E., Ketchen, D.J., Hult, G.T.M., Elmadag, A.B., & Richey, R.G. (2008). Market orientation, employee development practices, and performance in logistics service provider firms. Industrial Marketing Management, 37(4), pp. 353–366. Gallie, D., Zhou, Y., Felstead, A., & Green, F. (2010). Teamwork, skill development and employee welfare. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 50(1), pp.23–46. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00787.x Jacobs, R., & Washington, C. (2010). Employee development and organizational performance: a review of literature and directions for future research. Human Resource Development International, 6(3), pp. 343-354. DOI: 10.1080/13678860110096211. Koster, F., Grip, A., & Fouarge, D. (2011). Does perceived support in employee development affect personnel turnover? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(11), pp. 2403-2418. DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2011.584404 Kumar, S.C., Kumar, S.B., & Sitaram, D. (2011). Value-based human resource processes for employee development: an empirical study after organizational restructuring. Siddhant- A Journal of Decision Making, 11(1), pp. 77-88. Maurer, T.J., & Lippstreu, M. (2008). Who will be committed to an organization that provides support for employee development? Journal of Management Development, 27(3), pp. 328-347. DOI: 10.1108/02621710810858632 Sarwar, S., Azhar, M.S., & Akhtar, N. (2011). Impact of training patterns upon the social relations of employees (a meta analysis). Journal of Management Research, 3(2), pp. 1-20. DOI: 10.5296/jmr.v3i2.612. Available online at http://macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jmr/article/view/612/560 Visagie, J., & Kruger, G.J. (2011). The functional relationship between mentoring relationship, employee development and organizational success. African Journal of Business Management, 5(17), pp. 7603-7615. Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM Read More