By an employee producing reports for the employer this allows the employer to see how they are performing within the organisation. This means in combination with a properly conducted appraisal, these notes will make a powerful tool to help employees progress in their job and also help them to make improvements to their work. This will therefore add to an employee’s self value and will make their job more satisfying. Within these reports can list decisions of whether an employee will be made to train, redirect their energies through promotion, demotion or sideways moves. If by any chance the employer states that the employee’s behaviour is less than satisfactory this may be recorded, also along with targets that are expected to be achieved and that the employee had agreed to meet. These reports should help the employee and employer focus on the key aspects of what skills will be required and then how they can be improved.
Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is one of the greatest ways to identify development needs. This is data that can be captured by a customer. Such as how the customer feels about a specific product, service in terms of quality, availability, expense etc. This feedback can then be used to identify personal developments that need to be improved. An example of this may be a hotel chain, asking customers to complete a questionnaire about the levels of how satisfied they were with the service they received. This can reflect well or badly on certain groups within the business e.g. bar/restaurant staff, house keeping staff, receptionist staff etc. Other examples such as a help desk may invite users to compliment on the guidance they were given. This is a very important way of a business helping staff members to improve their personalities, skills etc.
Performance Data
Some organisations can collect information about a certain employee over a period of time and review this performance information with the employee. Performance such as how quick an employee performs their work or how many items they sold etc. An example of this could be a checkout worker in a supermarket. The rate of performance could be recorded by how many items they scan, how many customers they serve during their shift, what profit they made etc.
These measures however when taken in isolation might not always be accurate or fair as; one customer may buy a lot of cheap items but in a large proportion of products. This would therefore result in a slower scanning process. If a product has been known as being damaged this would also slow the process of a transaction as an employee would have to leave their workstation to retrieve the same undamaged product.
For this type of method to improve skills it has to be recorded in large sample. This is so the sample can be classified as the entire population. This means over a long period of time one checkout employee can be compared against another.
Appraisal Records
This type of method is used to identify an employee’s performance of work throughout a month, year etc. This will allow the employee to focus on their strongest points and weakest points. This will then help the employee to focus on targets they want to meet in the future, whether this is their timing e.g. handing in a project on a set deadline etc.
Addressing Development Needs
Job Shadowing
This will involve working with an employee or other individuals whilst observing and analysing their job role. This will help employees gain more of an understanding of certain job roles and how procedures/tasks are carried out. Job shadowing will give prospective employees an insight to the stresses and strains of a particular job. This will then help develop the skills needed to cope with workload and any interruptions that may occur within the working environment.
In some cases the person who is being shadowed may do a running commentary on what is happening. This is sometimes not practical though as they’re maybe others such as; customers, suppliers etc, who would overhear the conversation which could be very confidential. In this case, a debriefing session may be performed after the tutorial to explain what happened.
Formal Courses
To meet some specific development needs it may be important to attend a course programme to develop knowledge, base skills and understanding. These courses may be run by other organisations or be in-house training that the employee’s organisation would run themselves. These courses may lead to qualifications which will have to be obtained passing an examination. Examinations that are taken by bankers and insurance companies are set to establish a standard set of knowledge and performance that would be suitable within that industry. For Example, within the ICT industry, Microsoft offers a number of qualifications that can confirm understanding of one or more of their products. By obtaining one of these qualifications will improve an employee’s level of expertise. This will help an employee become more advanced within their career enabling them to work better within their qualified job.
Meetings and Events
Meetings provide employees with opportunities to share information making good practice, and keeping informed of particular updates within the business or what other competitors are doing. This may help employees to learn from those who are more experienced than them. When addressing a particular need there are specific mechanisms that will be used to help identify and develop these needs.
Sometimes there are numerous methods that will be used over a period of time to help develop these needs; many of these needs will only require attending one training session or joining a single team in a meeting. After a specific need has been undergoing training it will then be monitored to ensure that it is meeting various stages and has been addressed properly. This will then help to recognise more needs that will eventually be developed with mechanism to support them.
Informal Training
Informal training is less effective as formal training, as not much effort is being put into what is supposed to be learned. It can then be harder to tell whether that training had even occurred or not. Examples of these informal discussions are; among different employees about a certain topic etc. This training is sometimes referred to as the deepest and richest learning because it focuses on tasks that are naturally occurring in everyday life.
Reading Books/ Magazines
Many of times it is easier to find specific data in a book rather than searching the World Wide Web. This is because the internet contains thousands of sources and makes it more difficult to search for an accurate piece of data. Reading books and magazines links with informal training as it helps users to have discussions to help develop needs and skills.
