BBA 229
Training and Development
Lecture 7 & 8
Employee Development
Dr. S. Chan
Department of Business Administration
charmaine@chuhai.edu.hk
http://home.chuhai.hk/~charmaine/
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Employee Development
Development refers to formal education,
job experiences, relationships, and
assessments of personality and abilities
that help employees perform effectively in
their current or future job and company.
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Comparison Between
Training and Development
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Why is Employee Development
Important? (1 of 2)
Employee development is a necessary
component of a company’s efforts to:
– improve quality
– retain key employees
– talent management
– meet the challenges of global competition and
social change
– incorporate technological advances and
changes in work design
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Why is Employee Development
Important? (2 of 2)
Development activities can help
companies reduce turnover:
– by showing employees that the company is
investing in the employees’ skill development
– by developing managers who can create a
positive work environment that makes
employees want to come to work and
contribute to the company goals
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Approaches to Employee Development
-Formal Education
-Assessment
-Job Experience
-Interpersonal Relationships
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Formal Education
Formal education programs include:
– off-site and on-site programs designed
specifically for the company’s employees
– short courses offered by consultants or
universities
– executive MBA programs
– university programs in which participants
actually live at the university while taking
classes
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Trends in
Executive Education
Universities offer MBA programs that allow
employees to earn the MBA in less than two
years
Universities offering executive education
programs are beginning to measure their
programs’ ROI
Companies also provide tuition
reimbursement to encourage employees
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Assessment
Assessment involves collecting information and
providing feedback to employees about their behavior,
communication style, or skills
Used most frequently to
– identify employees with managerial potential
– measure current managers’ strengths and weaknesses
– identify managers with potential to move into higher-level
executive positions
– work with teams to identify members’ strengths and
weaknesses, and factors that inhibit productivity
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Popular Assessment Tools
Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator®
(MBTI)
Assessment Center
Benchmarks
Performance
Appraisals and
360-Degree Feedback
Systems
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Assessment Tools: Myers-Briggs
(MBTI)
Most popular psychological test for
employee development
Used for understanding such things as:
–communication
–motivation
–teamwork
–work styles
–leadership
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Personality Types Used in the MyersBriggs Type Indicator Assessment
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Personality Types Used in the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator Assessment (concluded)
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Examples of MBTI Use
Can be used by salespeople who want to
become more effective at interpersonal
communication by learning things about their
own personality styles and the way they are
perceived by others
Can help develop teams by matching team
members with assignments that allow them to
capitalize on their preferences
Can help employees understand how the
different preferences can lead to useful problem
solving
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Assessment Tools:
Assessment Center (1 of 2)
A process in which multiple raters or
evaluators evaluate employees’
performance on a number of exercises
–usually held at an off-site location
–used to identify if employees have the abilities,
personality, and behaviors for management
jobs
–used to identify if employees have the
necessary skills to work in teams
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Assessment Tools:
Assessment Center (2 of 2)
Types of exercises used include:
– leaderless group discussions
– interviews
– in-baskets
– role plays
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Examples of Skills Measured by
Assessment Center Exercises
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Assessment Tools: Benchmarks
An instrument designed to measure important
factors in being a successful manager
Items measured are based on research that
examines the lessons executives learn at critical
events in their careers
This includes items that measure managers’
skills in dealing with:
– subordinates
– acquiring resources
– creating a productive work climate
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Skills Related to Managerial
Success
Resourcefulness
Doing whatever it takes
Being a quick study
Building and mending
relationships
Leading subordinates
Compassion and
sensitivity
Straightforwardness and
composure
Setting a developmental
climate
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Confronting problem
subordinates
Team orientation
Balance between personal
life and work
Decisiveness
Self-awareness
Hiring talented staff
Putting people at ease
Acting with flexibility
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Assessment Tools:
Performance Appraisals
The process of measuring employees’
performance
Approaches for measuring performance:
– ranking employees
– rating work behaviors
– rating the extent to which employees have desirable
traits believed to be necessary for job success (e.g.,
leadership)
– directly measuring the results of work performance
(e.g., productivity)
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Conditions in which Performance
Measurement is useful for Development
The appraisal system must give employees
specific information about their performance
problems and ways they can improve their
performance
Managers must be trained in providing
performance feedback
Managers must frequently give employees
performance feedback
Managers also need to monitor employees’
progress in carrying out the action plan
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Assessment Tools: 360-Degree
Feedback System
Peers
Rating
Form
Rating
Form
Manager
Self
Customers
Rating
Form
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Rating
Form
Subordinates
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Development Planning Activities from
360-degree Feedback Process
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Factors necessary for a 360-degree
feedback system to be effective:
The system must provide consistent
(reliable) ratings
Feedback must be job-related (valid)
The system must be easy to use,
understandable, and relevant
The system must lead to managerial
development
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360-Degree Feedback:
Important Issues to Consider
Who will the raters be?
How will you maintain the confidentiality of the
raters?
What behaviors and skills are job-related?
How will you ensure full participation and
complete responses from every employee who is
asked to be a rater?
What will the feedback report include?
How will you ensure that managers receive and
act on the feedback?
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Job Experiences
To be successful in their jobs, employees must
stretch their skills.
They must be forced to learn new skills, apply their
skills and knowledge in a new way, and master new
experiences.
Relationships, problems, demands, tasks, or other
features that employees face in their jobs
Most employee development occurs through job
experiences
A major assumption is that development is most
likely to occur when there is a mismatch between the
employee’s skills and past experiences and the
skills required for the job
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Enlarging the Current Job
Job enlargement – adding challenges or
new responsibilities to an employee’s
current job
This could include:
– special project assignments
– switching roles within a work team
– researching new ways to serve clients and
customers
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Characteristics of Effective Job
Rotation Systems (1 of 2)
Job rotation is used to develop skills as
well as give employees experience
needed for managerial positions
Employees understand specific skills that
will be developed by rotation
Job rotation is used for all levels and types
of employees
All employees have equal opportunities for
job rotation assignments
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Characteristics of Effective Job
Rotation Systems (2 of 2)
Job rotation is linked with the career
management process so employees know
the development needs addressed by
each job assignment
Benefits of rotation can be maximized and
work load costs minimized through
managing time of rotations. This can help
employees understand job rotation’s role
in their development plans
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Transfers, Promotions, and
Downward Moves
Transfer - in a transfer, an employee is given a
different job assignment in a different area of the
company
Promotions – advancements into positions with
greater challenges, more responsibility, and
more authority than in the previous job
Downward move – occurs when an employee
is given a reduced level of responsibility and
authority
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Interpersonal Relationships
Employees can also develop skills and
increase their knowledge about the
company and its customers by interacting
with a more experienced organizational
member
Two types of interpersonal relationships
used to develop employees:
– mentoring
– coaching
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Characteristics of Successful Formal
Mentoring Programs (1 of 2)
Mentor and protégé participation is voluntary
– relationship can be ended at any time without fear of
punishment
Mentor-protégé matching process does not limit
the ability of informal relationships to develop
Mentors are chosen on the basis of:
– their past record in developing employees
– willingness to serve as a mentor
– evidence of positive coaching, communication, and
listening skills
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Characteristics of Successful Formal
Mentoring Programs (2 of 2)
The purpose of the program is clearly
understood
The length of the program is specified
A minimum level of contact between the mentor
and protégé is specified
Protégés are encouraged to contact one another
to discuss problems and share successes
The mentor program is evaluated
Employee development is rewarded
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Benefits of
Mentoring Relationships (1 of 2)
Mentors provide
– career support
– psychosocial support
Benefits for protégés:
– skill development
– higher rates of promotion
– larger salaries
– greater organizational influence
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Benefits of
Mentoring Relationships (2 of 2)
Provide opportunities for mentors to:
– develop their interpersonal skills
– increase their feelings of self-esteem and worth
to the organization
– gain knowledge about important new scientific
developments in their field
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Coaching Relationships (1 of 2)
Coach – a peer or manager who works with
employees to motivate them help them develop
skills provide reinforcement and feedback
The best coaches are:
–
–
–
–
empathetic
supportive
practical
self-confident
They also do not appear to know all the answers
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Coaching Relationships (2 of 2)
Three roles that a coach can play:
– one-on-one with an employee, providing feedback
based on psychological tests, 360-degree
assessment, or interviews with bosses, peers, and
subordinates
– help employees learn for themselves by putting them
in touch with experts who can help them with their
concerns and by teaching them how to obtain
feedback from others
– provide the employee with resources such as
mentors, courses, or job experiences that the
employee may not otherwise have access to
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