Chapter 9 Employee Development McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction Development - formal education, job experiences, relationships, and assessments of personality and abilities that help employees perform effectively in their current or future job and company.

Table 9.1 - Comparison Between Training and Development

Introduction (cont.) Why is employee development important? To improve quality. To meet the challenges of global competition and social change. To incorporate technological advances and changes in work design.

Introduction (cont.) Development activities can help companies reduce turnover by: showing employees that the company is investing in the employees’ skill development. developing managers who can create a positive work environment that makes employees want to come to work and contribute to the company goals.

Approaches to Employee Development 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, and university programs. Tuition reimbursement - the practice of reimbursing employees’ costs for college and university courses and degree programs.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Assessment Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, values, or skills. Used most frequently to identify employees with managerial potential, and measure current managers’ strengths and weaknesses. Companies vary in the methods and sources of information they use in developmental assessment.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Most popular psychological test for employee development. Identifies individuals’ preferences for energy, information gathering, decision making, and lifestyle. It is a valuable tool for understanding communication styles and the ways people prefer to interact with others.

Table 9.4 - Personality Types Used in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment

Table 9.4 - Personality Types Used in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Assessment center - multiple raters or evaluators evaluate employees’ performance on a number of exercises. It is used to identify: if employees have the abilities, personality, and behaviors for management jobs. if employees have the necessary skills to work in teams. Types of exercises used include leaderless group discussions, interviews, in-baskets, and role plays.

Table 9.5 - Examples of Skills Measured by Assessment Center Exercises

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Benchmarks - instrument designed to measure important factors in being a successful manager. Items that are measured include dealing with subordinates, acquiring resources, and creating a productive work climate.

Table 9.6 - Skills Related to Managerial Success

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Performance appraisal - process of measuring employees’ performance. Different approaches for measuring performance: Ranking employees. Rating their work behaviors. Rating the extent to which employees have desirable traits believed to be necessary for job success.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) 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. Upward feedback - involves collecting subordinates’ evaluations of managers’ behaviors or skills.

Figure 9.1 - 360-Degree Feedback System

Table 9.8 - Development- Planning Activities from 360-Degree Feedback

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Factors necessary for a 360-degree feedback system to be effective: The system must provide consistent or 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.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Job Experiences - relationships, problems, demands, tasks, or other features that employees face in their jobs. 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.

Table 9.9 - Job Demands and the Lessons Employees Learn from Them

Table 9.9 - Job Demands and the Lessons Employees Learn From Them

Figure 9.2 - How Job Experiences are Used for Employee Development

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Job enlargement - adding challenges or new responsibilities to an employee’s current job. Job rotation - providing employees with a series of job assignments in various functional areas of the company or movement among jobs in a single functional area or department.

Table 9.10 - Characteristics of Effective Job Rotation Systems

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) 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.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Externships - employees take full-time, temporary operational roles at another company. Employee exchange is one example of temporary assignments in which two companies agree to exchange employees.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Volunteer assignments offer employees opportunities to manage change, to teach, to take on a higher level of responsibility, or to be exposed to other job demands. Interpersonal relationships Mentor - experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less experienced employee (the protégé). Mentors provide career support and psychosocial support to the protégé.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Provide opportunities for mentors to: Develop interpersonal skills, increase feelings of self-esteem and worth to the organization, and gain knowledge about important new scientific developments.

Table 9.11 - Characteristics of Successful Formal Mentoring Programs

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Interpersonal relationships Purposes of Mentoring Programs To socialize new employees and to increase the likelihood of skill transfer from training to the work setting. To enable women and minorities to gain the experience and skills needed for managerial positions. To develop managers for top-level management positions or to help them acquire specific skills. Group mentoring programs - successful senior employee is paired with four to six less experienced protégés.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Interpersonal relationships Coach - a peer or manager who works with employees to motivate them, help them develop skills, and provide reinforcement and feedback. The best coaches are empathetic, supportive, practical, and self-confident but do not appear to know all the answers or want to tell others what to do.

Approaches to Employee Development (cont.) Interpersonal relationships 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.

The Development Planning Process It involves: identifying development needs. choosing a development goal. identifying the actions that need to be taken by the employee and the company to achieve the goal. determining how progress toward goal attainment will be measured. investing time and energy to achieve the goal. establishing a timetable for development.

Table 9.12 - Responsibilities in the Development Planning Process

Company Strategies for Providing Development The most effective development strategies involve individualization, learner control, and ongoing support.