Professional development is a lifelong journey that can help employees have a happier and more fulfilling career. It can help increase job satisfaction and allow your company to have highly skilled employees who can help it grow.
But how can you help your employees achieve professional development? And what goals can employees set to help them get there?
This article discusses personal development and the benefits of setting these goals. We also give you eight ways your employees can achieve their professional development goals faster so your company can reap the benefits.
What is professional development?
Professional development is improving yourself through training and learning to improve your career. To help your employees achieve this, you must encourage them to set professional or career development goals.
These short- and long-term goals encourage career growth and support professional interests. By identifying their career goals, your employees can create a professional development plan or ‘career roadmap’ showing them the steps to grow in their jobs.
Some examples of professional development goals include:
- Learning a new business skill
- Attaining an additional qualification
- Earning a raise or promotion
- Taking on a management role
Your employees can also use their career goals roadmap to look at specific metrics to measure their progress and make sure they achieve these goals.
Why are professional development goals important?
Setting professional development goals is essential since it can help your employees gain clarity and direction in their careers, which can then, in turn, help your company have more skilled workers.
Achieving these goals may help your employees learn enough to become adequate leaders in your company and help run projects more efficiently.
These goals help your employees get more focused, work harder, and be more motivated to climb the corporate ladder and achieve better results for themselves and your organisation.
8 ways to achieve professional development goals
Here are some things you can encourage your employees to do to achieve their career goals.
1. Set clear and specific goals
The best way to ensure your employees achieve their career goals is to train them to make their goals clear and specific so they know exactly what they aim to achieve.
They can follow the SMART goal-setting framework to make their goals specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
For example, instead of having a goal saying, “I want to improve my qualifications”, your employees can make their goals more specific by saying, “I want to attain a Bachelor of Business Administration in three years”.
2. Continue learning
Professional development requires continuous learning so workers can acquire new skills and knowledge. They must stay committed to life-long learning to develop their hard and soft skills throughout their careers.
As they build their skills, they can complete additional tasks — which could help them become more marketable while also helping your company grow. It is beneficial to both parties.
You can help your employees develop these skills by enrolling them in short courses like data analysis and design thinking or workshops, conferences, or online webinars.
3. Seek feedback and mentorship
Constructive feedback is an essential part of professional and personal growth. Feedback from supervisors, managers, and peers will help employees improve in several areas.
A mentor can guide your employees and share their experiences so they will not have to make the same mistakes. This can save your company costs and help your employees be more efficient.
4. Build a solid professional network
A solid professional network can help your employees identify new career opportunities, better understand your industry, and foster collaboration.
They can build their network by attending industry events, joining relevant associations, and engaging online through platforms like LinkedIn.
This will open doors to new collaborations for your business since your employees may build close relationships with other professionals in the industry.
5. Reassess time commitments
Continually assess your employees’ time commitments to ensure they can realistically achieve their goals within the chosen timeframe — without neglecting their other responsibilities.
While developing hard skills, such as computer abilities, can be very rewarding for your employees and company, it can take a lot of time. This could disrupt their work-life balance and decrease their job satisfaction.
So, encourage your employees to practice effective time management to work towards their career goals without abandoning familial or personal responsibilities.
6. Further their education
Pursuing additional qualifications is another way to achieve professional development goals. For example, if your employee has an undergraduate degree, you can enrol them in a postgraduate degree, such as an honours programme related to the industry.
Many of these courses have online options to make it easy to implement into your employee’s schedule, providing flexibility while they work.
These additional qualifications will help them dvance to senior roles and could help your business have better leaders to promote productivity and higher revenues.
7. Learn from other departments
In addition to building a professional network, your employees could contact other people in your organisation to learn different skills and processes.
This will broaden their knowledge and help them better understand organisational dynamics and how everything works together. Simultaneously, this will improve their communication and collaboration skills since they will work with other team members.
8. Stay adaptable and resilient
The business world is constantly changing and evolving. Therefore, adaptability is crucial for all South African businesses. You need to help your employees improve their adaptability skills to be prepared to act during setbacks.
Transform your workforce with REGENT
REGENT Business School offers corporate and workforce solutions that train your employees to become leaders so they can drive your company into the future.
We offer multiple solutions, including formal higher education learning programmes, short learning programmes, and entrepreneurship development solutions.