Employee growth programs are a distinct type of L&D initiative that requires somewhat more of a commitment from the organization. This is particularly true for the human resources department, which should implement various programs to support talented employees who have a Growth Mindset. But the benefits are worth it.

Growth Programming is Different

The basis of growth programming is the Growth Mindset. Although it was originally conceived in the educational world, it is being applied to companies as a way to achieve various improvements in employee attitudes towards their organization, including:

• Creativity: 49% greater likelihood to believe that the company is interested in innovation

• Dedication:  34% greater likelihood to feel a strong sense of commitment

• Trust:  47% greater likelihood to see talented colleagues as collaborators instead of a threat

• Innovation: 65% greater likelihood to say that the company is in favor of risk taking

A Magical Growth Formula

The creator of the Growth Mindset discovered that outstanding performance is a result of a certain mentality. Essentially speaking, such people believe that the only limitation to personal growth – in the classroom or in the workplace – is a matter of effort, and not intelligence. Once provided with skills and opportunities, the only barriers that a person with the Growth Mindset faces are their own ambitions.

Associated with this is another essential aspect of the Growth Mindset, which states that every failure is an opportunity for learning. This makes sense when considering that motivated people definitely make mistakes but keep going because they don’t want to waste opportunities.

How HR Can Help

It’s not just people who have a Growth Mindset; organizations can have them as well. Building your company along such lines takes a comprehensive effort at all levels, as well as an employee growth strategy.

But let’s start with a more common situation, which is that of individual employees who have been recognized through a talent development program as having the right attitude, background, and skills to go far. What can HR do to promote their abilities?

CMP +

A career management program (CMP) is an “umbrella” initiative that can handle many aspects of a growth program. Inside CMPs are HR activities that include career development, career pathing, and career planning. That’s pretty standard stuff.

Of course, learning and development is the core of CMP. In order to gain new skills and move within the organization, workplace training is a basic requirement.

But CMP also adds job enrichment programs, and these are critical to the idea of growth. Especially in large organizations, working your way up the ladder takes time. Even the most motivated of workers can lose sight of a far-off goal. To keep them in the program, HR must maintain morale and satisfaction. Job enrichment is an excellent method to do just that, through various methods that make tasks both more interesting and rewarding as they should lead to better chances for internal mobility.  

Opportunities

Speaking of job enrichment, another role for HR is to arrange for a variety of opportunities that allow an employee to use their skills in a real-life situation. Furthermore, by applying newly-found skills, employees improve their rate of knowledge retention. A job enrichment program can answer this need through activities such as:

• Job rotation

• Job shadowing

• Cross-functional teams

• Project-based teamwork

• Customer-facing tasks such as client relations and sales support

Culture

“Growth” is about more than a person. Obviously, for an employee to succeed in their role, they must understand the goals of the organization. In this sense, both the company and the employee grow together. But how is this message truly delivered?

The answer is culture. Employee behavior and organizational culture are interactive. Strong leaders who exemplify the company’s values will influence employees. In turn, these employees will act in ways that reinforce the culture. For a growth program to flourish, organizational culture should act as a guide for developing employees’ behavior and their professional goals.

Leadership Roles

As stated above, an important aspect of the Growth Mindset is the attitude towards mistakes. A motivated employee (particularly one who is self-aware) can look past the temporary embarrassment of an error and learn from the experience. In addition, getting used to making mistakes is part of taking chances, and educated risk-taking is an essential part of innovation.

There is no better setting for “failure under pressure” than in a leadership role. Leaders need to act quickly and with imperfect information. The good ones take responsibility for their errors and keep their team going, particularly during bad times. They are also in the spotlight and need to learn fast. Sounds like a great way to grow professionally.

It’s HR’s responsibility to enable ambitious workers to take on leadership responsibilities, even if it’s only temporary. But just as importantly, HR must arrange for useful feedback methods that avoid negative feelings and focus on constructive criticism.

Generate Employee Growth with Growthspace

Growth programs require organizations to provide numerous and specialized programs throughout the employee lifecycle. But setting up, running, and evaluating that many courses, particularly in a large company, can get out of hand.

So HR departments that want growth programming are turning to Growthspace. A single platform allows them to source specialist L&D experts, arrange personalized growth initiatives, and monitor the results. With Growthspace, companies are growing talent without increasing HR workload.