Friday Resource: Strengths-Based Employee Development: The Business Results

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Gallup and explains the business impact of a “strengths-based” employee development program.

It is a well-known fact that employees are craving more on-the-job career development, and for the most part, are not receiving it. Common excuses and bottlenecks include, gaining support from company managers and leaders, fear of losing top performers, and not enough time and resources. Top performers are more likely to leave if they are not getting the career development that they are seeking, and the cost of losing those employees is much higher than employee development programs.

“Gallup estimates that only about one in 10 people naturally possess high talent to manage, and organizations name the wrong person as manager about 80% of the time.”

Per Gallup, part of the disconnect is that the wrong people are put into management roles and thus are not creating the right environment in which employees feel engaged. A new trend in employee growth, termed strengths-based development, focuses on developing strengths versus improving weaknesses. The idea behind this is that people innately enjoy working on things they are good at and are more productive when they are doing those things. The results for companies that have implemented strength-based management practices are astounding.

“Almost seven in 10 employees (67%) who strongly agree that their manager focuses on their strengths or positive characteristics are engaged. When employees strongly disagree with this statement, the percentage of workers who are engaged in their work plummets to 2%.”

It is time for companies to shift the way they approach career development and understand that it is something they need to have to retain top talent.

Read the full article.

The post Friday Resource: Strengths-Based Employee Development: The Business Results appeared first on Fierce, Inc..