Once a business has hired people, whether it’s as little as two or as much as two hundred, giving employees the opportunity for development is a must. Why? Put simply, developing your employees effectively helps to improve the success of your business – both the individual and the business benefit – it’s a win-win situation.

Shrewd managers know that their people, as much as their products and services, differentiate them from their competitors. They recognise too that people are the key to delivering effective change and laying the foundations for future growth.

This will mean an investment on the part of the business, whether that’s in time and/or money, and although sometimes this may need to be in a ‘classroom’ format, these days there are a wide range of learning tools that don’t require that and indeed, dependent on the development needs, the workplace itself can provide a ‘real-time’ classroom.

Five reasons to develop your people:

1.  To maximise on the time and money you’ve invested in hiring – think about what it takes to find and hire really good people. If you’re not giving them the opportunity to make the most of their existing skills and learn new ones then you’re not capitalising on your investment – in fact, you’re watching it depreciate in front of your very eyes!

2.  To increase productivity – Engaged and motivated employees are more productive. There’s a lot of research that exists about the link between people being engaged and motivated and how productive they are in the workplace (the Government backed ‘Engage for Success’ initiative is just one example) and funnily enough that’s the reality too. Cast your mind back to the last time you were bored or uninterested in something…  if that’s your state of mind, are you really going to want to do your best and focus on the task at hand or are you more likely to do the minimum that you can get away with? In a small business, this arguably has an even greater impact.

3. To improve customer satisfaction – Your employees are your brand ambassadors. Every contact an employee has with your customers either reinforces or undermines the organisation’s image and reputation. Engaged employees will help promote the brand and protect the business from the risks associated with poor service levels or product quality.

4.  To keep your best performers – you may think that pay would be the biggest motivator for people to leave (or stay) with your company, however, lack of appreciation, poor management and limited promotion prospects come higher than pay. The average cost of employee turnover can be several thousand pounds (dependent on the role) when you consider the cost of recruitment and selection, cover required during the period there is a vacancy, and induction training for the new employee.

5.  To gain a competitive advantage – it keeps employees in the loop while constantly presenting them with the challenge of learning. This makes it easier when the need arises to implement new technology or processes which will keep your business ahead of the game.

There are clear business returns in developing your people. The challenge for many companies however, is to capture the metrics that demonstrate a return on the time and money invested.

Any development should be clearly linked to business goals and performance and part of the business strategy and it should also be a two-way conversation. As with anything, setting clear and tangible objectives beforehand will manage expectation on both sides of what will be achieved and how it will help both the individual employee and the business.

For many small and medium-sized businesses the first barrier is sometimes to change the mind-set of managers to ensure that they are bought in to the value that learning and development initiatives can deliver; then it’s about ensuring staff are given the encouragement, direction and support to get the most out of the development opportunities they are given.

If you would like to know more about how people development can give your business the edge, then please get in touch at naheed@ipsoconsulting.com or connect with me on Twitter @NaheedMirza

About the Author

Naheed Mirza is Managing Director of organisational development company Ipso Consulting, specialising in leadership, talent and change management.

With a clear focus on future goals and objectives, Ipso Consulting helps businesses to understand and realise the vital role of robust people development practices to increase sustainability and growth.