It’s a scientific fact that happy employees are more effective than unhappy employees. It’s common sense that employees faced with the prospect of having to do the same exact thing endlessly without any hope of promotions or the opportunity for training to grow and learn new skills are not going to be happy.
Four Types of Growth
When it comes to training, offering employees the chance to learn new skills is beneficial to your company because it adds talent to your team, but it also benefits the employee personally by giving them more “tools” to have in their skills “toolkit.” But you might not realize that there are training opportunities that go beyond just job-related skills.
According to this article from Forbes magazine, there are four types of growth to consider for your employees: financial growth, career growth, professional growth, and personal growth. Offering special training in any of those areas will likely be welcome by your employees. It will show them you value them and that you see potential in them that you want to help them realize.
That, in turn, will build confidence in your employees. They’ll want to show off their new skills if they’re job-related, or if they result in improved finances or interpersonal relationships, that can certainly go a long way to alleviating some of the worries that workers frequently bring with them from day to day, that can interfere with the optimum performance of their duties.
When you offer opportunities for their growth through training, it will lead to happy, productive employees. It will also increase your pool of talent that can be promoted to more senior positions, and that’s usually more advantageous than hiring from outside the company.
Promotions vs. External Hiring
Also, have you been thinking about hiring someone for a management role? You might want to consider promoting from within the ranks instead. A study by Matthew Bidwell of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania reveals some interesting statistics:
- External hires get paid on average 18% to 20% more than internal workers who get promoted.
- External hires are 61% more likely to get fired than employees who are promoted from within a company.
- These same external hires are 21% more likely to quit their jobs than their internally promoted counterparts.
- It often takes up to two years for externally hired employees to catch up in job performance to the employees who are promoted from within.
There is ample evidence that promoting your employees is not only beneficial for your employee, but for your business.
Promote employees and watch them shine.
While you shouldn’t be hasty about promoting employees, if you have a proven, trusted employee who consistently does a good job, a promotion is a great way to say, “Thank you.”
Forbes magazine provides a list of indicators that it’s time to offer some upward mobility to an employee, some of which include:
- They’re always seeking the next challenge.
- They handle failures maturely.
- They have strong people skills.
- They routinely identify and solve problems within the organization.
- They consistently demonstrate their impact on the business.
In conclusion, look for opportunities to help your employees grow. When they do go the extra mile to improve themselves or your business, reward their loyalty by helping them take another step up the ladder. They will thank you for it and they’ll want to prove to you that it was right to trust them with more responsibility.