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Increasing Employee Productivity through Their Career Development

As a small business owner, it’s important to ensure your workforce is as productive as possible. Wasted effort and wasted resources can be disastrous for small business owners. This is precisely why employee engagement should be an important priority. Although there may seem like more pressing matters at hand – after all, small business owners are extremely busy people – engaging your workforce is just as important. It’s been shown that increases in employee engagement directly lead to increases in productivity and, thus, the bottom line. So what exactly is employee engagement and what are some tactics that can help improve it?

An engaged employee – whether a manager, assistant or front-line staff – is one that is fully committed to a company and is passionate about their work. Needless to say, this can be an extremely difficult thing to achieve. There are tools and tactics, however, which can be used to try and improve this area of your human resources. Engaging employees means taking an interest in their lives and their work, both professionally and, to an extent, personally. If you show them that you care about them, they will return the favor for you and your business. 

One of the best ways to induce engagement is to pay attention to the career development of employees within an organization. Many times when people speak of career development, it is externally focused. But career development can actually happen from within an organization as well. The key in this approach is to identify exceptional employees and work with them to ensure they fully reach their potential within your company. It’s important to remember that an employee who works hard is not necessarily engaged with the company. Engagement occurs when an employee truly feels like a part of the company “family,” and feels as though the goals, vision and objectives of the company align with his or hers. They also feel as though they are valued and respected and have a significant impact on the success of a company.

Once exceptional employees have been identified work with them to pull out their greatest skill-sets. A career management program can help to direct and guide an employee within an organization, or even within a single department, based on their strengths. There are many HR services and solutions that can be contracted to help in this regard. Through the use of workshops, meetings, and assessments, goals are laid out for a person’s career path within an organization. It’s important to keep these exceptional employees engaged and on-track with their goals, and those of the companies.

Career development and career management programs are effective ways of engaging employees. By taking an active interest in the growth of your employees, both personally and professionally, you make them feel as if they are truly valued. They often feel closer to the company and commit themselves more fully to the visions and goals of the organization. Engaging your employees has a direct impact on things like productivity and profitability. This should never be an after-thought.