How-To Develop your Employees

Skill development and succession remain a major issue facing employers and it has been suggested that in the next ten years, 50% of jobs will require new skills.  Leaders and managers need to ensure that they are providing the tools, opportunity and encouragement to enable people to develop new skills, gain experience and continually improve.  

Many employees (48%) agree that training opportunities were a factor in choosing their current company. More than three-quarters of employees (76%) say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training (SHRM 2022). 

Placing a strong emphasis on learning at all levels will not only increase organisational performance and productivity, but will also improve employee engagement.   

Cosgrove & Drew Engineering are an example of a company who have embraced the need to develop skills in the workplace and we were delighted to work with them to help them to create their version of our SkillBuild framework.

 Zac Cosgrove who founded the business with his friend, Luke Drew explains more: 

“Upskilling and training employees should be encouraged throughout any organisation. We have our very own SkillBuild, a development model that allows an employee in any area of the organisation to build their career goals, matched off with monthly 1-2-1's and 6 monthly appraisals. It means there is continued monitoring and support for our people.” 

Why?  

Zac, Luke and the team have identified five powerful reasons to SkillBuild: 

1. Improves Employee Performance: Training and upskilling programs help employees improve their skills and knowledge, increasing job performance, productivity, and efficiency. 

2. Enhances Employee Retention: Investing in employee development and training shows that the organisation values and cares about its employees, leading to increased employee loyalty and retention. 

3. Increases Adaptability: With rapid advancements in technology and changes in the market, upskilling and training employees helps them stay up-to-date and adaptable to changes, keeping the organisation competitive. 

4. Boosts Innovation: By providing employees with the necessary skills and knowledge, they are better equipped to innovate and find new solutions to business challenges. 

A question to consider is what do you do to support the development of your teams? 

We offer our congratulations to Zac, Luke and the team at Cosgrove & Drew who have been shortlisted as a finalist in the UK Company Culture Awards in the Best Employee Development Programme category for their SkillBuild programme. We wish them all the best of luck at the awards ceremony on 4th May.