EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

Employee Development



Employee Development

Employee Development

Employee Development is one of the most important functions of Human Resource Management. Employee development means to develop the abilities of an individual employee and organization as a whole so; hence employee development consists of individual or employee and overall growth of the employee as when employees of the organization would develop the organization, organization would be more flourished and the employee performance would increase (Elena P. 2000). Therefore, there is a direct relationship between Employee Development and Employee Performance. As when employees would be more developed, they would be more satisfied with the job, more committed with the job and the performance would be increased. When employee performance would increase, this will lead to the organization effectiveness (Spiegler, 2000, pp. 78).

Importance of Employee Development Activities Employee development activities are very important for the employees as it indicates that organization cares about their employees and wants them to develop (Elena P. 2000). Many of the organizations are investing in employee development. When organizations are contributing towards the employee development activities, the employees work hard; utilize their full skills and efforts to achieve the goals of the organizations. There are many schools of thoughts. One school of thought says that employee development focus on:

1. Self Development

2. Self Directed Learning

This concept indicates that employee development must be recognized by employees who want to learn or who are willing to learn. When employees are willing to learn, they show their interest in the developmental activities, as a result, they are more satisfied with the job which will lead to increase in employee performance (Elena P. 2000). Employee development also depends upon the individual employee. As when individual employee wants to learn, he would learn more and more, he would participate in many other activities such as attend seminars, workshops and others training sessions, either on the job or off the job. This certainly would lead to employee development, and employee development would lead to increase in employee performance (Spender, 2003, Pp. 62). No matter how much expertise does a person have if the person or employee is not willing to develop? No matter how much resources you provide employee would not developed. So employee development is also a personal responsibility of the employees. Employees at all levels are involved in the developmental activities whether the upper-level employees, middle or lower-level employees (Antonacopoulou 1996).

Challenges in Employee Development

As employee development depends upon the individual employee whether the employee is willing to participate or not. Employee development also depends upon the organization culture, attitude of top management, and limited opportunities of promotion.

Organization Culture

If organization culture supports employees, it will encourage employees to participate in decision making then employees would more develop and performance would increase.

Attitude of Top Management

Top Management attitude is another important factor that influences on employee developmental activities. It depends on the sincerity and commitment of the top management.

Limited Opportunities of Promotion

If opportunities of promotion are limited then employees would not ...