As we enter the final month of 2014, I like to reflect on the year and think about the future. Because it is the people within organizations that drive change, performance, and achievement, I truly believe it is imperative for institutional leaders to put a greater emphasis on developing their talent. Thus, I'd like to share three key ideas on employee development that I hope will provide some perspective for institutions as we approach 2015.

1. Increase Focus on Employee Development and Training

As we know, the demand for higher education is expected to increase. However, higher education institutions will… >>>

"Today's economy is not a recession. It's the end of an era." When I first heard this quote from Arthur Brock, it struck a chord. We have indeed entered a new era as well as a knowledge-based economy where an organization's effective utilization of intangible assets such as employee skills, abilities and innovation are key to building a competitive edge. What does this mean for career colleges?

Career colleges, just like all organizations, must improve their adaptive capabilities to sustain long-term competitive advantage. Likewise today, every institution must be exceptional at creating change; not just responding to it. Disruption has… >>>

The upsurge in investigations, lawsuits, and school closures due to compliance issues may have some believing that more regulatory oversight is necessary for career colleges and universities. The reality is that career education is already one of the most highly regulated sectors in all of higher education. For example, a career college may be approved and/or licensed by several separate state agencies, an institutional accreditor, several different programmatic accreditors and the U.S. Department of Education. Amid this amount of regulation, does even more oversight sound like a reasonable solution to reducing compliance issues? Or does effective employee training have more… >>>

Most employees enjoy the opportunity to learn and are eager to participate in training to advance their careers.  So why do some employees hate training and how can organizations prevent this from happening? 

1. Training as Punishment – Employee training and development can help enhance performance but some organizations use training purely as a disciplinary action when employees underperform.  This leads employees to view training as punishment.

How to Avoid: Support all employees with continuous training opportunities as part of your organizational development strategy.  Employees are energized about training that is truly available to support them, not… >>>

Employee job satisfaction is critical to any institution’s success.  Dissatisfied employees are less engaged, less committed, and less likely to perform.  Studies confirm organizations that support their employees through training increase job satisfaction resulting in better business results.  Employee training, however, is not only linked to improved business results but is also a powerful factor in shaping employee attitudes.  It creates motivation for increased discretionary behavior and a satisfaction with career development that ultimately leads to increased job satisfaction of two types: intrinsic and extrinsic. 

Intrinsic Job Satisfaction

Intrinsic job satisfaction is when employees consider the type… >>>

Managing people has evolved from old approaches of "commanding and controling" to "developing and empowering." Over the years, managers have taken some responsibility for ensuring that their staff members maintain the knowledge and skills necessary to perform. Additionally, organizations have developed more expansive models of what development looks like. Compare the old versus new approaches below:

1. Focus on Poor Performers vs. High Performers

• Old Approach: Poor performers are the only staff members who need development
• New Approach: Every staff member within an organization should be developed with particular attention to high performers

2. Development as Responsibility of Human Resources… >>>

It’s December, which typically means many employees are beginning to think of their end-of-year performance evaluations.  Are the goals you set at the beginning of the year on track for success?

Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in the craziness of our day-to-day tasks, that at some point in the year, our goals start to look more like burdensome “to-do list” items rather than meaningful objectives with personal significance we set out to achieve knowing they would benefit ourselves and consequently, the organization and the students we serve.  As you reflect on 2013, you might find that you accomplished… >>>

Employee retention is important to organizations for many reasons. There are well-known costs associated with employee turnover including financial costs attributed to acquiring new talent, the loss of intellectual capital when an experienced, highly-skilled employee leaves and diminished company morale which has an impact on customer service and performance. Although managers tend to know the importance of employee retention, there are 3 myths managers tend to have that must be busted. Those myths are...

Myth 1: Employee Retention Means Holding on to Employees Forever - Employee retention means keeping good employees for the most appropriate amount of time for… >>>

As institutions look at different ways to ensure compliance at every level of their organizations it has become clear that sharing regulations with employees and asking them to comply is simply not enough.

1. Modeling Ethics and Integrity - When leadership models ethical behavior in their actions and reflects these values in policies, it lays the foundation for establishing a culture of integrity.

2. Effective Employee Training - Training helps to create a compliant organization. In fact, all employees of an organization need to receive compliance training, especially regarding communications with students. All school personnel, including administrators, staff and faculty,… >>>

Performance Management is a systematic approach to improving productivity in the workplace based on observable and measurable results. For example, in a manufacturing facility, results would be based upon the amount of production of a particular product with a certain level of quality in a specified period of time.

In the career education setting, positive student outcomes are ultimately the results we are looking for. Retention, completion and placement rates are performance indicators that all career colleges must continuously measure and improve.

To achieve our desired business results, we must maintain and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our people… >>>

Study after study shows that effective employees continually assess and seek to improve their own knowledge, skills and behavior. Personal self-assessment plays a major role in career development and performance improvement by allowing employees to identify and act upon their strengths and weaknesses.

Consider the following scenarios:

John aspired to have his boss's job. When his boss transferred to another organization, John was promoted to his boss's position. Things turned sour from the start. In his new position, John was required to make frequent presentations and speeches. He had always feared public speaking. John eventually learned to perform these speaking… >>>

Accredited institutions must establish annual faculty development plans to enhance faculty expertise in the areas of instructional skills and content knowledge. In most institutions, the individual development plan is primarily used to schedule, record and document an instructor’s developmental activities. The development plan is typically driven by planned institutional activities followed by an explanation as why participation in the listed activities meets the instructor’s needs. 

An effective development plan must start with the identification of individual goals to be achieved. These goals should be performance based and measurable.  The established goals should then drive the process of identifying and planning… >>>

Training ROI

Do you measure the return on investment (ROI) for your personnel training and development programs? If you are like most career colleges, you are probably very good at calculating the ROI for your various advertising programs but have never measured the ROI for your training programs. Right?

Is Your Institution Compliance or Quality-Driven When it Comes to Training?

In fact some schools view employee training as a cost item needed to meet compliance requirements for professional development and continuing education. They ramp up their employee training programs just before their state license or accreditation is up for evaluation… >>>

Innovation requires new ideas and measured risk-taking but how does one stimulate innovative thinking from a group?

1. Getting comfortable with Risk - Determine within your work group how much risk is acceptable to you and to your employees.  Involving the team to discuss this will help the team understand that measured risk-taking is necessary for innovation and will help everyone get comfortable with some agreed-upon level of risk for ideas discussed.

2. Communication and Reflection - Ask your work group to communicate before, during, and after decision-making processes about problems and/or mistakes.  Reflecting on problems and mistakes and communicating… >>>

Being effective at solving problems in the workplace (and throughout life) requires using a combination of memory, logic and insight. Your experiences combined with your logic abilities help you determine which problem-solving method is best for each challenge you encounter but there are several practices people commonly demonstrate which can hinder problem solving.  6 practices having to do with illogical thinking are listed below:

Recognize when you, your employees, or others adopt these 6 illogical practices:

1. Speaking in absolutes, such as all, none, no one, everybody, never or always
2. Generalizing that is either unsupported or supported by only one or

… >>>

In formal training, the needs of the job dictate the required training for the job. Good formal training includes the following characteristics:

1. Analysis
Many factors can contribute to performance problems that cannot be solved by training. A needs analysis involves knowledgeable personnel who are aware of the requirements of the job and the necessary level of performance. This analysis determines whether a need for training exists.

A job analysis determines the specific tasks critical to competent performance of a job. These tasks may be frequent, repetitive, important, difficult, or error-prone. It is this analysis that provides the basis… >>>

3 Consequences of Neglecting Employee Development

Development is a process that requires commitment on the part of the employee as well as the managers who are responsible for developing their direct-reports. It is not always easy having the development discussion but failing to address the developmental needs of direct reports can adversely affect an entire department as well as the entire institution. 3 specific consequences that can develop if developmental needs are not addressed include the following:

1. Employees feeling neglected and unmotivated - If not given opportunities to grow or feel supported, the morale and motivation of critical team… >>>

Managers are inherently in a position of power and authority but as explained in a previous blog (3 Realities of Being a New Manager), power isn't the same as influence.  Influence is earned, in large part, by how you collaborate with others and the forgotten skill that many managers don't strategically use is simple - listening.  There are many practical benefits for managers who choose to listen to their employees.  3 Benefits Managers who listen can realize include...

1. Build Rapport - Supervisors and managers who listen to their employees can build rapport, swiftly clear up misunderstandings, and… >>>

3 Realities of Being a New Manager

As new managers transition to their new role, they face new challenges, responsibilities and opportunities.  There are four new realities that new managers must face to accelerate their transition and succeed:

Reality 1: The skills that lead to success as an individual contributor differ greatly from those needed to manage.  As a manager, the expertise that made you so good at what you did as an individual contributor will still be used to coach others but the role of manager requires you to work through others.

Reality 2: Power… >>>

The True Function of Managers

Agha Hasan Abedi said "The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work."  This is one of my favorite quotes about management because it highlights a common attitude about what management is while highlighting what it should be.  There are many managers who focus on processes and procedures vs. people.  Many of these managers want to focus on developing their people but somewhere down the line, they got bogged down with tasks so coaching their employees may seem like a daunting task.  Ironically, employee… >>>