Feeling valued and motivated is an excellent way to start the workday. Employers and team leaders can introduce changes that help their staff develop professionally, thereby achieving greater satisfaction and commitment among workers.
Perhaps not everyone can have their dream job, but organizations and team leaders can certainly improve the way employees approach their day-to-day work. Having the opportunity for professional advancement is one of the main motivations for people to stay in their jobs.
Retaining good employees is very important in an increasingly competitive market, and it is well known that it costs more to lose a good employee and train a new one than to retain someone who has developed expertise and commitment to their work, with a solid knowledge of the company and its procedures. How can we ensure that our best employees remain loyal to our organization? In addition to creating a good working environment where people feel listened to and secure, we can also offer opportunities for growth, a choice that benefits both employees and the organization.
To better understand the scope of this, let’s look at the approach offered by the Uptime® Elements Framework in its recent People and Culture at Work Passport, specifically in the Opportunities for Growth (Og) Element. Encouraging creativity and the development of ideas that come from employees can be very healthy for the organization, because it could find solutions and approaches to existing problems, based on the daily experience of those who have to deal with them.
Encouraging workers to explore beyond their routine functions could bring to the table solutions and proposals that would otherwise go completely unnoticed. Likewise, employees themselves would gain a more complete view of their own role within the company’s value chain. All of this could be as useful as it is stimulating, and it is a good way to initiate a process of growth opportunities, encourage proactivity, and create feelings of loyalty to the company and work teams. However, granting this type of autonomy also comes with a commitment to apply proven practices, feedback, and necessary corrections to obtain the desired results.
This Og Element explains that, traditionally, growth opportunities have been reserved for professionals with university degrees. However, opening up growth opportunities for everyone is a clear sign of inclusion and respect for all workers and employees, regardless of their origins, education, ethnicity, and gender.
Alternatives and actions
To promote growth opportunities in the organization, you can start with concrete actions as recommended in the Og Element text. Here are a few:
- Support employee skill development and training. Identify the type of skills required for specific tasks, and through dialogue and observation with your work teams, determine what type of training they may need to take on new responsibilities.
- Encourage your most experienced employees to mentor younger employees, thereby increasing the level of expertise of those who are just starting out while giving a sense of purpose to the employees who become mentors (read our article The importance of feeling safe to broaden your view of employees’ emotional needs).
- Provide positive or corrective feedback. This will keep your employees focused as they go through a process of growth and learning that will also benefit the organization.
- Volunteering is also an effective opportunity to promote growth among your employees. At the Association of Asset Management Professionals, we have created the organization Women in Reliability and Asset Management (WIRAM), which aims to highlight and elevate the role and contributions of professional women in the fields of industrial maintenance, reliability, asset management, and facility management. WIRAM is conceived as a global community of volunteers working to enhance the role of women in business. Our volunteers develop a deep sense of purpose by supporting a cause they can easily identify with: closing the gender gap and helping young women find their career path within the industry, while also becoming role models for girls and the future generation who may see STEM fields as a solid opportunity for professional and personal development.
- Encourage networking as a result of external training. If your employees need to receive training outside the company, this will not only help them improve professionally but could also bring fresh new ideas to the organization, benefiting everyone.
A win-win situation
If we all grow together, we will all share in the benefits of this training journey. Growth opportunities should be part of the business strategy and Human Resources departments.
The direct benefits for the organization are extensive:
- Committed and satisfied employees
- Lower turnover rate
- Increased productivity and quality of work, products, and services, thanks to the development or acquisition of new skills
- Company loyalty and a deep sense of identification with their department or organization
- Promotion of a culture of learning and the concept of continuous improvement
Any company or organization, whether industrial or not, can benefit from these principles, which are explained in detail in the Uptime® Elements framework, specifically in the People and Culture at Work Passport. Offering growth opportunities to your employees is a win-win situation that will greatly benefit your organization.
