“Our mission is to attract and retain the best talent.“

Does this sound familiar? Probably, since more companies than not have some version of this included in the mission statement for their recruiting and organizational development functions.

But HOW do you attract the best?  HOW do you then retain them? 

To start with, how do you define “best”?  What specifically does it take to be successful and THE BEST in YOUR organization? As a leader in your organization? As an individual contributor?

Unfortunately, quite often these questions cannot be clearly answered, or the answers are so long and vague that they aren’t meaningful to people. Organizations have the best of intentions in creating leadership and professional development programs, but if they haven’t clearly defined success for these programs, and how they’re going to get there, it’s like shooting in the dark. Too often, “success” is just about the number of butts in seats during instructor-led training, but good people development is so much more than that.

Crafting an effective people development program starts with being very clear on what true success looks like.

Is this just about continuous improvement?  Or are you seeing skill and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed?  Maybe your leaders are really good at driving work, but not effective at leading people.  Maybe their teams love them, but the work isn’t getting done.  Maybe you have some hard working, efficient individual contributors, but customers hate dealing with them.

Is the goal for this program INDIVIDUAL development?  Or do you need to build a strong and consistent leadership TEAM within a key function? 

Is this a general need across your organization?  Or are you only seeing this gap in a few areas?  Maybe just in one leader?

Is this about supporting your employees in being better in their current positions?  Or is the main goal to build bench strength for your succession planning needs?

All of the above?

Most organizations aspire to being recognized as a great place to work, with high employee engagement scores and all of the benefits that entails.  Investing in your people by providing effective professional development opportunities is a key strategy in achieving engagement, but also represents a significant investment of time and energy spent away from their day jobs, so let’s work together to craft the most EFFECTIVE opportunities possible.

Please contact me. I’d love to help.