Objective: effective professional development for more effective teams

Today's successful companies are not only those that recruit the best talent, but above all those that know how to develop them. Professional development is no longer just a perk, it's a strategic lever for team performance and loyalty.

Training, support, upskilling... these are all actions that not only optimise the potential of each employee, but also ensure the company's long-term competitiveness. But how do you structure effective professional development that is tailored to each individual's needs?

In this article, we'll look at why it's essential to invest in professional development and how to turn it into a real driver of growth for your organisation. On the agenda: best practice, HR strategies and examples to help you achieve your goals. 💪

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What is professional development?

Professional development can be defined as all the actions put in place by the company to encourage its employees to increase their skills and draw up a career plan. Essential to the well-being of employees, it enables them to learn new skills and stimulates their motivation and ambition.

Set up individually for each employee by the company, the professional development plan takes the form of various actions. These naturally include

• regular interviews to monitor the employee's progress and career aspirations ;
• enrolment in training courses tailored to the career plan;
• obtaining the certifications required for professional development;
• participation in seminars, workshops, webinars, etc. ;
• setting up in-house e-learning solutions to encourage employees to challenge themselves and develop their skills; etc.

Why is it important to support employees' professional development?

Neglecting employees' professional development is undoubtedly one of the worst strategic mistakes a company can make. All the more so at a time of recruitment difficulties and high staff turnover.

We explain why a well-oiled professional development policy has become essential in the world of work. ⤵️

Reason no. 1: build employee loyalty and encourage internal promotion

Employee retention is a major issue in today's world of work. According to figures from Statista, the average turnover rate in France is around 15%. When you consider the cost involved in replacing an employee and training a new one, it's easy to see why employee retention is at the top of a company's list of priorities.

To avoid a talent drain and encourage your employees to stay, it is more than advisable to focus on their professional development. Indeed, some of the reasons why employees want to leave include :

• lack of recognition
• poor working conditions
• but above all the lack of prospects for career development. ☝️

So, by focusing on continuous learning through a professional development plan, you are contributing to the well-being and fulfilment of your teams. What's more, by keeping an eye on the training courses taught and the progress made by your employees, you can more easily identify those employees who are most likely to progress professionally within the internal hierarchy. A win-win deal for both company and employees!

Reason no. 2: Develop the skills and knowledge of your teams

To ensure that you remain competitive, it is imperative that you do not allow routine to set in within your teams. Continuous learning via a professional development plan helps to stimulate and challenge them on a daily basis. 🧠

By improving their skills, employees become more productive. And that's reflected in the company's performance!

Reason no. 3: attract new talent

Before applying to a company, candidates are doing more and more research. They are particularly interested in the reputation of the employer brand and the way employees are treated.

One of the main reasons for this rise in expectations is the desire to find a job that matches their values, expectations and needs. By emphasising the implementation of an individual professional development plan for each employee, you will immediately gain in attractiveness and set yourself apart with a corporate culture that encourages internal development. 📈

Reason no. 4: stay on top of the latest trends

Among the other benefits of a professional development culture in your company is the need to keep up with the new trends that are driving your market. Indeed, when it comes to ongoing training for your staff, you need to keep abreast of the latest best practices, especially when it comes to technology and innovation.

It should also be noted that the need to constantly monitor trends in your sector of activity can lead to commercial opportunities. It's not uncommon, for example, for companies to collaborate following joint participation in a webinar, conference or training course.

How can you help your employees develop? 7 best practices to adopt

Are you looking for advice on how to help your employees develop both professionally and personally? Here are a few good practices to put in place to create a calm learning and working environment.

Identify the key skills to be acquired

This is the basis for your work. The aim of this first stage is to define precisely the skills and knowledge that your employees need to master in order to be eligible for internal career development. Of course, these hard and soft skills are not the same, depending on the sector of activity and the specific nature of the business. All the more reason to identify them as carefully as possible.

These skills and knowledge can take different forms. For example, they may involve

• mastery of specific software
• the ability to manage a customer relationship over the long term
• or, more broadly, demonstrating leadership potential.

Introducing personalised monitoring using a tailored tool

Encouraging employees to make progress is all well and good. Being able to monitor them and measure their performance is even better!

So, to measure employee development and skills growth as effectively as possible, it is strongly recommended that you equip yourself with specific software. Most software specialising in Learning Management Systems (LMS) offer a performance monitoring function. This makes it extremely easy to track individual progress.

💡 What's more, these e-learning solutions enable you to identify the strengths and areas for improvement that your employees need to work on. This is an excellent way of assigning them specific learning modules designed to help them overcome any difficulties.

Define the development potential of each position

Right from the onboarding stage, employees need to be aware of the career opportunities available to them within the company and the skills they need to develop in order to progress internally. It is therefore necessary to define a clear mobility path for each position, enabling the employee to make a more or less long-term projection.

Example: let's take an employee who joins the company as a sales assistant. They need to know that, depending on the efforts they make and the skills they acquire over the years, they will be eligible for :

• a position as a department manager
• then shop manager
• before eventually becoming a sales manager.

Creating an individualised professional development plan for each employee

Broadly speaking, a professional development plan should enable all employees to identify the levers they need to pull in order to aspire to a position of greater responsibility. It is therefore important to define and share with the employee, during a meeting set aside for this purpose, the roadmap mapped out for his or her development within the company. 🗺️

The employee's professional development plan should include the long-term objectives set by the management team 🎯 as well as the key skills and knowledge required to achieve them.

Please note: by its very nature, this plan is open-ended and may need to change depending on the employee's aspirations. Regular meetings should be scheduled to discuss the employee's progress and the best way of achieving their objectives.

Setting achievable goals to boost motivation

Setting long-term objectives is a good way of helping employees to see themselves in the company. But it can sometimes be a source of discouragement for less patient employees, who see it as an impossible mountain to climb.

So, to maintain a high level of motivation and retain your employees, it is in the interests of management teams to set several series of achievable objectives. Some can be achieved very quickly, while others will require greater commitment and regular effort.

By achieving their various objectives, each employee strengthens their self-confidence and creates consistency and resilience in their training path.

Good to know: it is generally accepted that to be considered relevant and effective, the objectives set for employees must comply with the famous Smart methodology. In other words, each objective must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Reward employees for their progress

An employee lacking recognition is an employee prey to self-doubt and malaise. And that's anything but good for their professional and personal development! So, to avoid sowing unrest within your teams, it's important to congratulate and reward your employees for the progress they've made and the objectives they've achieved.

These rewards can take many forms. While congratulations can simply be sent to the employee concerned in private, via the company e-mail system or at an informal meeting, they can also be expressed through :

• the company's internal newsletter
• the company's social networks
• financial rewards (a one-off bonus on the payslip is always nice!);
• assignments with greater responsibility or added value; etc.

Varying learning formats

Finally, among the other good practices that can be put in place to encourage employees' professional development, we can highlight the importance of the diversity and interest of the learning modules on offer.

✅ The more varied and fun the learning formats, the more employees will play along and associate the continuous training programme and skills development with enjoyable and motivating times. It's worth noting that many e-learning solutions build their concept around the gamification of learning.

Examples of professional development

Organising a workshop in the workplace

A workshop is a collaborative workshop that can be organised by a company to get its employees working on a common theme. This therefore fits in perfectly with a personal development plan, as each employee is encouraged to expand their knowledge and skills.

👀 Example: an employee whose ambition is to climb the ladder and occupy a more important position involving team management could be given the task of leading the workshop by his manager. In this way, they will be put through their paces and assessed on their leadership qualities.

Passing recognised certifications

Certifications are sometimes necessary to qualify for promotion or a change of position. For example, there are Microsoft certifications classified by profession (data analyst, security engineer, developer, etc.).

It is therefore possible to pay for employees to take these specific certifications if they so request, in order to help them achieve their objectives under the professional development plan drawn up with them.

Setting aside weekly time for skills development

It is not uncommon for a company to set aside weekly or monthly time for training and skills development.

• For employees, it's a welcome break from the sometimes routine.
• For the management team, it's a good way of contributing to their well-being while monitoring their progress and preparing the company's future step by step.

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What can we learn from professional development?

To sum up, professional development is an essential component in the fulfilment of employees in the workplace. As a means of building loyalty and motivation, it enables employees to develop their skills and to plan for the long term within the company.

But its impact extends far beyond the employee: it enhances the attractiveness of the company, improves its competitiveness and fosters a culture of continuous learning. By investing in appropriate training programmes and introducing a genuine skills development strategy, HR and management can transform their organisation into a veritable talent incubator.

The challenge is therefore clear: to make professional development a strategic lever, and not just a one-off initiative, to guarantee both the performance of teams and the long-term future of the company.