In this episode, we’re continuing our focus on ENGAGE 2024, our latest company culture and employee engagement report, by asking: “Why aren’t employees receiving more meaningful feedback?”
It’s here that we’ll discuss how essential it is for every organization to provide the development opportunities that their employees clearly crave. Discussing the latest findings on People Development is the wonderful Kelly George, Talent Analyst/Engagement Specialist here at Up Your Culture.
“Employee development is quite simply a must,” Kelly says. “It is non-negotiable.
“If you want a skilled, engaged, and adaptable workforce that is successful and competitive, you have to invest in employee development. And when you get it right, there's so many benefits that you experience:
“Talking about consequences without strong employee development though, your organization isn't going to realize those benefits.
“For example, without a strong employee development program, you're not going to have standards for training in place to ensure that your employees have access to and can follow best practices. That's going to have a negative impact on your organization's ability to have consistent and high-quality products or services.
“One of the things we saw in Engage 2024, the data said clearly we have a development deficit. Only 37% of those surveyed reported that their company is extremely focused on their development and that is down 51% from last year, which is so disheartening.
“Even worse, 15% believe that their company isn't focused on employee development at all.”
“Why are new hires feeling as though their companies are not investing in them?” Beth asks.
Kelly says, “Two things really come to mind here, and I'm glad we're looking at this specifically.
“One is the onboarding process. If you have an onboarding process that's rushed or it doesn't have structure, new hires will feel really overwhelmed and unsupported from the very beginning.
“And then, without that proper guidance, that orientation, they struggle to integrate into the organization and understand their role.
“In a broader context, I think there are often mismatched expectations. If there's a mismatch between a new hire's expectations and the reality of how the role is unfolding, or the organization's culture, the employees that are new often feel disillusioned or overlooked.
“So, it's really important to have clear communication in the hiring process to manage expectations, make sure there's alignment between the organization and new hires.”
Listen to the episode to hear Kelly’s full thoughts on the following takeaways: