What do you do if your organization's strategic framework is not fostering employee growth and development?

Employee growth and development is linked to success and capability. Success follows capability. And capability/skills need to be relevant, aligned to the strategy and scalable for sustained success. Success needs opportunity and encouragement. I have experienced that hiring talent based on Strategy and required skills holds the key. Secondly, the leader's ability to succinctly communicate strategy in simple terms and focus on two or three priorities allows the team to know their roles they need to play to achieve the results. Thirdly, giving stretch goals, fair rewards and recognition and performance management would set the right culture. Lastly, autonomy to perform, investment on skill development & encouragement creates success

Recognize that you are not alone in facing this challenge alone. Other leaders may be experiencing the same issue. To address this, you can become a change agent by confronting the issue directly. Provide feedback and input on what is working and how you can contribute to improving organizational health and growth mentality. Being a visible mentor and offering solutions can also make a difference. Take the lead in supporting employee growth and development by owning virtual work-streams and advocating for talent. Proposing ideas for collaboration and job opportunities can also be beneficial. Encouraging pay-it-forward activities and being a champion for change can help create a positive impact. #bethechange

If strategic framework is not fostering in employee growth and development it means either strategy is not employee focused or before defining strategy, employee need analysis was not done or both. It is important to first identify what are the competency gaps in the team, what employee wants, what are the challenges they are facing which are hindering them in participating in development program (e.g. not enough bandwidth). After collecting all the inputs and analyzing them, comprehensive employee development program should be prepared which is aligned with business goal as well as employee aspirations. This plan should be included in the strategic framework.

¿Todas las compañías deben hacerlo? Una base de la estrategia es comprender si estamos frente a un problema o una situación. Existen compañías donde los empleos son en esencia repetitivos, requieren mucha mano de obra que por razones obvias no todos pueden escalar o inclusos puestos que están pensados para desaparecer en un futuro. Así como también existen trabajadores de paso, estudiantes por dar un ejemplo. Ahí nace el conectar el propósito del trabajador con el de la empresa... si estos coinciden, todo estará bien.

Strategic framework? What even is that. Strategy - reflect honestly on where you are, define and choose, plan and prioritise, set a course, share the story. That's what I do with teams anyway.

Re-examine the effectiveness and intensity of the performance appraisals and review meetings that happen within the framework. Are they just nice to have rituals or are these discussions with the clear and serious intent of taking actions for improvements, training and development and time bound business results? Identify mentoring and upskilling programs for all employees and reassign roles adeptly for enhancing visible contributions post training.

Revising the strategic framework will entail reformulating new strategies preceded by careful reassessment of the ecosystem and determine the new budget, new resources to be mobilized, people to be trained, upskilling programs, reoriented recruitment strategies while acquiring talent, result oriented implementation mechanism, revamped organization culture for better engagement and sharper collective alignment to the corporate vision and redefined business goals both for the short term and the long term.

Leadership and HR will have to play a concerted role in deepening the intensity of employee engagement, foster a sense of accountability and ownership to propel the organization in it's future journey with continuously raising the work standards and performance benchmarks. Best practices implementation will need to be all pervasive, centres of excellence created and progressively replicated across the highly committed and diverse organization with a stimulating work environment

Besides establishing a proper implementation and monitoring mechanism, it is important to conduct periodic employee surveys to get the feedback on the tangible changes being sensed and experienced in the organization after instituting revised strategies and also track if the attrition levels are showing an encouraging reduction with improved talent retention and heightened employee engagement.