By Dr.

Sucheta Agarwal
 Employee Development: Approaches to employee development, the development planning
process, company strategies for providing development
 Ranstad USA-largest recruiting agencies
 Partnering program
 “Nobody should be left alone”
 Pairing strategies
 Increase the productivity
 No-one is boss and both are expected to teach each other
 Employee development

• Employee development refers to the steps taken within a company to encourage each

employees professional and personal growth. Employees within organizations that offer

employee development feel valued by their employer and produce larger amounts of

quality work. By developing the employees both professionally and personally, the

organization benefits from this growth.

• Development is about preparing for change in the form of new jobs, new

responsibilities, or new requirements.

 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.
 Employee development is a process of improving employees' existing competencies and skills and developing
newer ones to support the organization’s goals.
 Employee development isn’t just about developing organizational L&D strategies
 It’s more than just implementing mandatory employee training
 It is future-oriented, it involves learning that is not necessarily related to the employee’s current job.
 Development also helps employees prepare for changes in their current jobs that may result from new
technology, work designs, new customers, or new product markets.
 Development is especially critical for talent management, particularly for senior managers and employees
with leadership potential
 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.
Training V/s Development
 Importance
Why is employee of Employee
development Development
important?

• To improve quality. • To meet the challenges of global competition and

social change

• To incorporate technological advances and • Development activities can help companies

changes in work design. reduce turnover by showing employees that the
company is investing in the
employees’ skill development
 Approaches to Employee
Approaches development
to Employee Development
Formal Education Interpersonal Relationship

Job Experience
 Approaches to Employee
Approaches toDevelopment
Employee Development

Formal  Assessment Center

Education
 Benchmarks
 Performance Appraisal
Assessment and 360-Degree
Feedback Systems
 Myer-Briggs Test
Job Experiences

Interpersonal
Relationships
 Hindustan Unilever-India’s largest consumer products company
 Spend half their time on leadership development
 “hot jobs, hot people”
 The company uses the job rotation and mentoring as development activities
 Discusses each employee about their development plan
 Schwan, a Minnesota based frozen food delivery service, identified 15 important
competencies, the company used 360-degree feedback to measure managers’
competency strengths and weakness and created development activities related to
strengthening the competencies (e.g. coaches, training programs, rotation, job
experiences etc))
 A system to retain and motivate employees by identifying and meeting their developmental
needs is called development planning system :
1. Formal education programs include:
 off-site and on-site programs designed specifically for the company’s employees.
 short courses offered by consultants or universities, executive MBA programs, and
university programs. (GE Company)
 Many countries such as US, UK, Australia, Canada, India etc have been sending some of
their employees to do MBA or higher education under the companies’ sponsorship.
 In house or Out-house or leadership development program (General Electric)
 Tuition reimbursement - the practice of reimbursing employees’ costs for college and
university courses and degree programs.
12 Critical attributes
Character and enduring values
Communications
Customer champions
Confidence
Developing talent
Diversity with inclusion
Driver of change/transformation
Extraordinary result
Management skills
Strategy
Thought leadership
vision
2. Assessment
Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, values, or skills.

The employees, their peers, managers, and customers may provide information.

Used most frequently to identify employees with managerial potential, to measure current managers’ strengths and
weaknesses and to identify managers with potential to move into higher- level executive positions
Companies vary in the methods and sources of information they use in developmental assessment(psychological tests,
OCEAN, MBTI etc).
Assessments can help employees understand their tendencies, needs, the type of work environment they prefer, and the
type of work they might prefer to do.35 This information, along with the performance evaluations they receive from the
company, can help employees decide what type of development goals might be most appropriate for them (e.g.,
leadership position, increase scope of their current position). Popular assessment tools include personality test and
inventories, assessment centers, performance appraisal, and 360-degree feedback systems.
2 (a). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Most popular psychological test for employee development.

Refers to an assessment that is based on Carl Jung’s personality type theory. This theory emphasizes that we have a
fundamental personality type that shapes and influences how we understand the world, process information, and
socialize.
It is a valuable tool for understanding communication styles and the ways people prefer to interact with others.

16 personality types

Preferences for energy (introversion versus extroversion)

Information gathering (sensing versus intuition)

Decision making (thinking versus feeling)

Lifestyle (judging versus perceiving)

Example: MBTI used for understanding such things as communication, motivation, teamwork workstyles and
leadership
It can be used by salespeople or executives-interpersonal skills

Like intuitive preferences -brainstorming tasks,

employees with a sensing preferences -responsibility of evaluating ideas

Dr Sucheta Agarwal, IBM, GLA University, Mathura
 2 (b) Assessment center
 At an assessment center, multiple raters or evaluators (assessors) evaluate employees’
performance on a number of exercises.
 An assessment center is usually an off-site location such as a conference center.
 Six to twelve employees usually participate at one time.
 Assessment centers are primarily used to identify if employees have the personality
characteristics, administrative skills, and interpersonal skills needed for managerial jobs.
 They are also increasingly being used to determine if employees have the necessary skills to
work in teams.
 Types of exercises used include leaderless group discussions, interviews, in-baskets, and
role plays.
2 (c )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.
 Items measured by benchmarks are based on research that examine the lessons executives learn at critical events in their
careers.
2 (d) Performance Appraisals and 360-Degree Feedback Systems
- 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.

The appraisal system must tell employees specifically about their performance problems and how
they can improve their performance.
This includes providing a clear understanding of the differences between current performance and
expected performance, identifying causes of the performance discrepancy, and developing action
plans to improve performance.
Managers must be trained in frequent performance feedback.
 Managers also need to monitor employees’ progress in carrying out action plans.
 Upward feedback and 360-degree feedback are popular tools for development, particularly for
managers.
 Upward feedback refers to appraisal that involves collecting subordinates’ evaluations of managers’
behaviors or skills.
 The 360-degree feedback process is a special case of upward feedback.
 In 360-degree feedback systems, employees’ behaviors or skills are evaluated not only by subordinates
but by peers, customers, their bosses, and themselves. The raters complete a questionnaire asking them
to rate the person on a number of different dimensions.
 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.
 3 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 employee’s skills and past experiences and the skills required for the job.
 Example: Dave and Busters-run large volume restaurant –entertainment complexes-US
 Uses job experiences-strengthen employees competencies
 Have to cope with real life issues-kitchen staff or dealing with difficult customers.
 Job experiences that are seen as positive stressors challenge employees to stimulate learning.
 Job challenges viewed as negative stressors create high levels of harmful stress for employees exposed
to them.
 3 (a) Job enlargement - adding challenges or new responsibilities to an employee’s
current job.
 Examples
 An engineer-join a task force charged with developing new career paths for technical
employees
 An employee-coordinator of new climate initiative –work also as an administrative
assistant-one more responsibility-researching climate change.
 3 (b)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.
 Example
 India based Tata Consultancy Service’s job rotation program send native employees to
operation in China Hungary and South America.
 Helps improve customer service (entire workforce)
 3(c)Transfer - an employee is given a different job assignment in a different area of the company.
 3 (d) Promotions - advancements into positions with greater challenges, more responsibility, and more
authority than in the previous job.
 3 (e) Downward move - occurs when an employee is given a reduced level of responsibility and authority
(lateral demotion).
Example: Engineers who want to move into management often take lower level positions (e.g, shift supervisor)
to develop their management skills.
 3(f) Externships - employees take full-time, temporary operational roles at another company.
 Example: Mercer Management, a consulting firms, uses its externship program to develop employees who
have an interest in gaining experience in a specific industry.
 One employee-consultant-Mercer-Vice president of Internet Services for Binny and Smith
 3 (g)Temporary assignments, Projects and Volunteer Work
 Employee exchange is one example of temporary assignments in which two companies agree to exchange
employees. (example: Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Google have began to swap employees. )
 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.
 4. Interpersonal relationships: By interacting with a more experienced organizational member
 Mentor - experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less experienced employee (the protégé).
 Mentors provide career support and psychosocial support to the protégé.
 Provide opportunities for mentors to:
 Develop interpersonal skills, increase feelings of self-esteem and worth to the organization, and gain knowledge
about important new scientific developments.
 Example: New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center-mentoring program-house-keeping employees Mentor
undergo a two day training program
 General Electric launched an initiative in e-business-created a mentoring program -600 young managers-mentors of
top managers
 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 protégés.
 Coaching Relationships - 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.
 Three roles that a coach can play: provide feedback, help employees to learn, provide
information and resources.
Mentoring Coaching

Ongoing relationship that can last for a long time. To be really Relationship generally has a short duration. ‘Rapport’ is not so
successful, the mentor and mentee need to develop ‘rapport’. They important, although the client needs to be comfortable with being
often become friends. ‘open and honest’.

Can be more informal and meetings can take place as and when the Generally more structured in nature and meetings will be scheduled
mentee needs some guidance and or support on a regular basis.

Mentoring, which concentrates on career and all round development Coaching aims at improving the performance of an employee.
of the employee.

Mentoring, which lasts for a longer duration. Coaching is for a short term

A mentor has some great answers for your questions. A coach has some great questions for your answers

Mentoring is an informal one. Coaching is well planned and structured

Mentoring is relationship driven Coaching is task oriented

 It involves (Steps are):
Step 1: identifying development needs.
Step 2: choosing a development goal.
Step 3: identifying the actions that need to be taken by the employee and the company to
achieve the goal.
Step 4: determining how progress toward goal attainment will be measured.
Step 5: investing time and energy to achieve the goal.
Step 6: establishing a timetable for development.
 Robert Owen, a program manager in an information system department.
 Need to increase his knowledge of available project management software
 His Performance appraisal indicates that only 60 percent of the projects improved (Assessment has identified
his development need)
 Robert and manager agree that his development goal is to increase his knowledge about software
 This software can increase his effectiveness in project management (motivation)

 To boost his knowledge, Robert will read articles (formal education), meet with software vendors and
contact vendors’ customers for the evaluation of the project management software they have used (job
experiences)
 His manager will provide the names of customers
 Robert and his manager set 6 months as the target date for completing these activities
 One strategy is to provide development only for top level executives, senior managers and employees
identified as having high potential (neglect lower level employees
 Another strategy is to require all employees to devote a specific number of hours or spend a certain amount of
money on development (formal courses).
 The most effective development strategies involve individualization, learner control, and ongoing
support (Web or classroom development, mentoring, job experiences etc)
 Individual development plans are based on five core competences:

1. Act with integrity

2. Focus on the customer
3. Deliver results build relationships, and
4. develop leadership
Leadership development program takes a blended approach includes formal courses and small group
activities such as leadership and mentoring
 General Mills’s development plan follows the development planning process.
 Each employees completes a development plan that ask employees to consider
four areas:
Professional goals and motivation
Talents and strengths
Development opportunities
Development objectives and action steps