Running head: EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT The Challenge of Employee Development for Managers Wayne State University 1 EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 2 Problem Statement Managers and their subordinate employees are paid to propel the organization forward and provide results in their respective fields. They are expected to do better every year and constantly improve their contributions, but there is often not much time spent on employee development. One challenge that managers face is finding a balance of accomplishing targets and helping subordinates on their professional development to prepare them for future roles for which they may be hired internally or externally. This affects not only employee morale and job satisfaction, but also commitment to the organization and, therefore, employee retention (Lee & Bruvold, 2010). Managers taking adequate time to focus on employee development improves loyalty to both the company and the manager, which supports employee retention and encourages talent acquisition. Following the United States’ involvement in WWII, along with the GI Bill, there was a high demand for skilled workers, which initially prompted the idea of employee training (Torraco, 2016). In the late twentieth century, Gary Becker discussed the human capital theory, which “provided the basis for the perspective that training is an investment in employees and productivity, rather than cost” (2016). The Performance Paradigm in the 1990s, too, emphasized training’s ability to improve employee performance (Stolovich & Keeps, 1992) and has since expanded in opportunities and interest among employers (Torraco, 2016). As recent at 2016, though, employee training and development is still not up to par with expectations of employees. In a survey of over 1,000 people worldwide, 64% of those surveyed ranked their employers at a 7 out of 10, or less, regarding how much they are being supported in terms of growth (Stein, 2016). As consolidation continues in many industries, large companies are growing larger and individual employees are becoming even more minuscule than ever before, but employees are EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 3 more willing to leave and find work elsewhere too. The balance of employee development is a major challenge for managers. Reasons for the Problem Employee Development is not a Priority One reason that managers do not properly develop their employees is because upper management, and the organization as a whole, does not prioritize development. Even if the manager has the best of intentions when they hire a new employee, other tasks get in the way and time flies by and when the organization does not prioritize employee development, which leads to a culture of not prioritizing employee development. This culture comes from companies often not aligning career development with strategic human resource plans; there is a lot of discussion, but little action (Davis, 2015). At my company, one of more than 100,000 employees that spans the globe, we have a form for a development plan, but there are no requirements for it like there are for our annual targets. We have countless emails and reminders to complete our targets early in the year, complete our mid-year review in the summer, and complete our year-end reviews at the end of the year. The year-end review has a hard deadline, after which point, not having completed your self-evaluation affects your annual bonus. Whether or not you choose to fill out your development plan, discuss it with your manager, or act on it, makes no difference to the organization or HR team. Employee Development is not Measurable Another reason for lack of employee development, and a reason it’s not prioritized, is because development is difficult to objectively measure. Some effects of employee development can be witnessed, such as higher job satisfaction and presumably longer employee retention, but the directly related effects are not as simple. When an employee attends a class about EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 4 negotiation, then negotiates better rates with a vendor, there is a correlation, but there is no evidence that the class was the reason for the better rates. As companies move more and more towards big data and data-driven decisions, every dollar spent, and every decision made must have a measurable impact and those measurements are used to make future decisions. Companies are convinced, throughout legitimate evidence, as well as trial-and-error, that they are more efficient, effective, and profitable when they use data to make decisions (Akter et al., 2016). Unfortunately, for many soft-skill jobs, that means those jobs are being changed or eliminated. Communications departments suffer and employee development is not a priority (Marx, 2015). Disconnect between managers and employees Another reason for poor or no employee development is simply because there is a disconnect between employees and their managers, which causes managers to not know how to effectively develop their employees. As diversity rises in the workplace (Culbertson, 2018), managers are more likely to be less like their employees—different gender, different race, different religion, different family life, different socioeconomic background, different interests, different hobbies, and different aspirations—so it is more challenging for managers to connect with their employees and anticipate their needs. As they work together over time this decreases, but managers and their employees are no longer ‘two middle-aged, white men from the suburbs with a wife who is a full-time–stay-at-home mom of two children and a dog.’ There is more to overcome and understand about two vastly different people. Even two people who may seem very similar on paper—two white women whose parents are still married, have two siblings, and a live-in boyfriend—may have entirely different aspirations. Outside of personal differences that have arisen as diversity has increased, there is also the issue of ‘us versus them.’ As managers themselves work on their own career development, they may be focused on their own managers EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 5 and not on their employees, who, in turn, feel belittled or left out, which creates a separation of management and non-management employees (Rodriguez, 2018). Effects of the Problem Morale An employee who does not feel properly developed, or that the organization is not investing an adequate amount into her future, may feel less optimistic about the organization and the management team. The social exchange theory suggests that that trading of resources between people creates an informal, open-ended obligation (Benson et al., 2018). This includes compensation for work, overtime pay for work that is above and beyond, and so forth. It may also include other benefits like vacation days, insurances, and training; one often neglected by management is development (2018). “The norm of reciprocity suggests that individual employees will respond to their organization in kind” (2018), or in other words, the norm of reciprocity suggests that when an organization puts forth the resources to develop employees, the employees will feel more positively and return the resources, or effort, to the organization. Productivity An employee who does not feel properly invested in may also work less productively. If the organization will not invest in an individual worker, that worker may feel that he or she should not invest fully in the organization. “In the absence of career development satisfaction, employees may feel their contributions to the organization are not appreciated and may reciprocate…[by] neglecting their work, including chronic lateness, reduced interest and effort, absenteeism, and pursuing personal business or activities during worktime (Benson et al., 2018). This aligns with social exchange theory, which works on the principle that trading of resources between people creates an informal, open-ended obligation (2018). When the organization does EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 6 not put forth the resources for employee development, the employee feels that the exchange has been broken and no longer feels obliged to reciprocate with productive work. Efficiency In addition to less productivity coming from the disgruntled employee(s), the organization will also be significantly less efficient if it cannot retain employees. Resources will be spent many times over on recruiting, onboarding, and familiarizing new employees with the organization, culture, and processes. Seventy percent of employees say they are dissatisfied with career growth opportunities at their companies, and training programs are an opportunity to keep them engaged in their work (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). Without proper employee development, or training, employees are more likely to seek out more desirable opportunities elsewhere, leaving their previous organization in an inefficient rut of hiring and onboarding new employees. Effectiveness The biggest—or at least, most-relatable-to-executives—effect of poor employee development is missing out on profitability. “Companies with high-impact learning programs delivered profit growth three times greater than competing firms during a recent four-year period,” (Kinicki & Williams, 2018). If there is an opportunity for three times greater profitability that employees are not achieving, then they are not performing very effectively. This may be an issue of morale that they do not feel inclined to work to their full potential, but it is more likely to be related to the fact that there is more knowledge and training that they could receive from development opportunities that would make them more effective workers. EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 7 Goal Attainment For an employee who is not be properly developed, goal attainment may be too far of a reach without proper support and knowledge, particularly if some of the goals are “stretch goals.” Training and employee development not only provide confidence to employees, but also hard and soft skills that may assist in attaining goals, as well as getting exposure to different people and processes that may benefit the employee’s goals (Sitzman, 2015). Possible Solutions Possible Solution #1 One possible solution to a lack of effort put into employee development is to have regularly scheduled career-development activities (Davis, 2015). First and foremost, by announcing these quarterly development days, this gives accountability to the manager— employees and other colleagues will be anticipating these days and it will force the manager not to cancel. These activities can align with the organization’s strategic objectives and be helpful for all employees, as well as increase retention by showing the effort put forth to develop employees internally. Suggestions include internal career days set up like a career fair—most valuable for top talent, new-entry graduates and mid-career professions, who are often the least engaged; workshops for interview skills and resume-writing; and building professional associations (2015). Career fair days encourage employees to look forward to new career opportunities, but still stay within the same company. Even if an employee is not looking for a new job yet, these career days will show them the opportunities that exist within the company when he or she does decide that it is time to move on. Interview skills and resume-writing is really the most employee-centric development opportunity, because the organization and manager will get the least out of this activity. This is truly a selfless task that shows the EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 8 employee that they and their career are important to the organization. Finally, professional associations are similar to the internal career fairs. This activity can be a career-seeking activity, or simply an opportunity-scouting activity, as well as a career-advice gold mine. Veteran professionals can be paired with novices to share career do’s and don’ts, and novices can also take the opportunity to learn more about the organization in which they are employed. This, similar to the fair, benefits the organization and its employees. Possible Solution #2 Another possible solution for the manager to increase employee development is to open up communication (Davis, 2015). Managers should encourage their employees to communicate with them just as much as management communicates down. “Employee communication is the barometer by which the organization knows if it is doing enough of the right things” (2015). This can be anything from regularly scheduled meetings with employees and managers to having a suggestion (email) box. Both of these methods will allow the employee to speak up about what they are unhappy about and also gives managers access to what their employees want. Specifically, regularly scheduled meetings between employees and managers increase the familiarity and create a stronger relationship, as well as gives the employee ample opportunity to share goals and ambitions with the manager, which the manager can, in turn, assist with achieving. This will allow the manager to tailor development opportunities to exactly what the employee is looking for in their career. Possible Solution #3 A third possible solution for a manager to better support employee development is to form a partnership with his or her employees (Davis, 2015). As stated above, a manager that has a relationship with his or her employees will be in a better position to support and development EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 9 those employees. “Line managers should be able to draw up career plans with individual team members, monitor progress and identify solutions to problems just as they would do for the performance management of team members” (2015). Similar to the idea of opening up communication with employees to learn what they need, building a relationship offers managers opportunity to learn who their employees really are, what their background is—beyond their resume—and what they are looking for in their careers. This cannot necessarily be done in a formal, regularly scheduled meeting, particularly if a life circumstance changes those plans. In an international study conducted by Crawshaw, et al., they found that participants who scored higher on attachment avoidance—the tendency to keep emotional distance from others—in their relationships with managers had more negative perceptions on career growth opportunities and lower participation in career development activities (2015). In contrast, those employees that had showed trust in the organization and higher relationship levels with managers felt they had better career opportunities. Recommendation In order to improve employee career development in the workplace, the most effective method presented by research is to host regularly scheduled career-development activities. This solution can combine monthly employee-manager meetings, organization-wide, bi-annual career fairs, and quarterly miscellaneous activities such an interview practicing and resume-writing (Davis, 2015). The implementation of this plan would be multi-level. The manager should implement the regularly scheduled meetings, but a member of Human Resources or Corporate Communications should be in charge of organizing the quarterly activities and career fairs, as well as communicating them out and getting buy-in from upper management to ensure full support and involvement. If the resources are limited, most of these activities can still be put in EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 10 place—management time is the most critical, and if managers cannot commit a short time period of their time once a month or once a quarter to the development of their employees, they should not expect to retain those employees. This solution is a win-win-win for the employees, managers, and organization. The employees will get a feeling that the organization feels their development is important and will have growth opportunity to develop professionally; the managers will have growing employees who are becoming even more valuable to the organization; and the organization will be developing internally and working to retain top talent, which includes improving efficiencies by avoiding resources spent to hire and onboard a new employee. EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 11 References Akter, S., Wamba, S.F., Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R. & Childe, S. (2016). How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment. International Journal of Production Economics, 182(Dec. 2016), 13-131. Retrieved from Science Direct. Becker, G.S. (2002). Human Capital. Retrieved from http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/HumanCapital.html. Benson, J., Brown, M., Glennie, M., O’Donnell, M., & O’Keefe, P. (2018). The generational “exchange” rate: how generations convert career development satisfaction into organisational commitment or neglect of work. Human Resource Management Journal. Retrieved from Wiley Online Library. Crawshaw, Jonathan (2015). The role of line managers in employee career management: an attachment theory perspective. International Journal of Human Resource Management 26(9). Retrieved from EBSCO Host. Culbertson, D. (2018, March 26). Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Grow Briskly. Retrieved from https://www.hiringlab.org/2018/03/26/diversity-and-inclusion-grows-briskly/. Davis, P. J. (2015). Implementing an employee career-development strategy. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from ProQuest. Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. K. (2018). Management: A practical introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Lee, C.H. & and Bruvold, N.T. (2010). Creating value for employees: investment in employee development. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 14(6). Retrieved from Taylor Francis Online. EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT 12 Marx, W. (2015, October 13). The New Rules of Corporate Communications. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3051881/the-new-rules-of-corporate-communications. Rodriguez, D. (2018). How to Overcome the Disconnect Between Management and Employees. Retrieved from https://social.hays.com/2017/01/06/how-to-overcome-the-disconnectbetween-management-and-employees/. Sitzman, T. & Weinhardt, J.M. (2015). Training engagement theory: a multilevel perspective on the effectiveness of work-related training. Journal of Management 44(2), 732-756. Retrieved from Sage Journals. Stein, L. (2016). Marketing talent blooms…or walks: prioritize personal development, cannes study says. Advertising Age, 87(6). Retrieved from ProQuest. Torraco, R.J. (2016). Early history of the fields of practice training and development and organization development. Advances in Developing Human Resources. Retrieved from Sage Journals.
