How to make professional growth a powerful tool for employees?

Organizations who care for their employees think about building employees' engagement and retainment along with focusing on their professional growth. Professionally upskilled employees are essential for the organisation's growth because they help the firm accomplish its determined goals successfully.

Professional development is beneficial for both organizations as well as the employees. For the company highly skilled employees are gems and employees working with a firm that helps in their professional growth will add stars to their careers.

Professional growth is the key to employee engagement and fruitful outcomes. In this write-up, we will mention some best ways to make professional growth the best tool for employees.

Look through the lens of the employee

The first and the most important step is to look at every individual growth experience through the lens of the employee who is experiencing it. Think whether the employee will look at the experience as attractive or not. Will the experience assist them to improve in their present role or prepare them for the upcoming roles?

If it is figured out that there is no fruitful outcome of today’s challenges and stretching in the present as well as the future, then it might be negative for the organization as well as the employee’s growth. So, it is essential to analyze every employee's level of growth individually.

Create a compelling and connected picture

The growth plan of many organizations falls short because they do not create a clear and connected picture for the future of their employees. Mostly, plans are a series of disconnected and unrelated goals for upliftment. They are not linked to the organizational initiatives and can't build a realistic future vision of what the employee is willing to become.

When employees have an understanding of the direction in which they can grow it becomes easier for them to mentally endure the everyday pressure. It becomes easier for the employees to understand how the challenges and stretching they are experiencing today are beneficial for their present and future. The everyday challenges of individuals may be better for them for now as well as for their future but if there is no connection the challenges will become stressful.

Know who owns professional growth

A segment of understanding professional growth deals with defining who is responsible for it. Whether the professional growth is owned by the organization? Or is it owned by individual employees or managers? In most cases when it is asked by the executive teams who own professional growth, they say employees are responsible for their personal growth. When the same question is asked to the employees, they say it is owned by the organization. And many employees end up changing the organization for finding professional growth.

Of course, the organization can't completely focus on the professional growth of every employee, employees have no power to own their growth without opportunities and resources. Managers also rely upon resources provided by the management and initiatives taken by the employees. So we can say that employees, managers, and the organization play an important role in professional growth.

Final note

Companies can develop a plan for improvement after defining professional growth from both the employees as well as the organisation's perspective. In almost every organization some employees are satisfied with the growth that they are experiencing.

While some employees struggle in finding out the meaning of professional growth. And, they change the organization to get growth. In such a scenario, it is of paramount importance to use skill gap analysis tools that help in understanding employees' experiences and growth opportunities. When the employees are satisfied with the growth opportunity provided to them, they feel more engaged and productive in the organization.