What are the top career development initiatives you would always recommend? Without a doubt a circular model that includes very clear and structured phases:
- Analysis / assessment
- Creation of training and development projects.
- Execution in hybrid mode, with micro-learning or live based on the expected objectives and targets involved.
- Feedback that allows you to map the goals achieved and evaluate possible integrations and/or revisions of the paths.
It is very functional today, in life long learning, to have formats available that allow us to train and educate ourselves consistently also based on changes external to organizations. The person and her impact become increasingly central in the ecosystems she frequents; his continuous improvement as an individual, both inside and outside the organizations with which he collaborates, will generate a different impact based on how his evolution and training will be experienced and organized.
How close is the link between professional development and employee retention? Could you provide some examples to highlight this relationship?
It is an increasingly relevant topic, not yet mandatory, but will soon become so, with the entry of the new generations. The data says that generations Z, The focus and my suggestion is to do it as soon as possible, invest in HR departments which are becoming profit and not cost centers, to have people trained and ready to already put talent management and development projects into practice. Let’s avoid doing what happened with smart working, which has been talked about for years but which was real and properly organized for only a few companies. We don’t have to wait for something extraordinary to happen to intervene but we can systematize it, make it enter the company cultures and implement it. Prepare shared and motivating training programs for resources who, already today, check and choose based on the quality of these proposals during the selection phases.
Over the course of your career, what would you say has been the biggest mistake employers make regarding the professional growth of their employees?
The poor attitude to listening to the real needs of one’s resources.
Not listening and not asking generates the very high risk of doing things that the entrepreneur has perceived as useful and important but, only on the basis of a vision of him, often more dictated by business and profits. Training was often, for me too, a waste of time because objectives and opportunities had not been shared. Even today, many people do not fully understand the advantage and benefits that coaching, training and change management paths, led by HR professionals, are of great value for both professional and personal growth. This link between real need and growth opportunity is still too often missing, which can arise thanks to a systematic comparison between managers and collaborators where we can verify how much and how training is increasingly a strategic asset.