We’ve discussed in previous blogs the importance of offering your employees opportunities to progress and climb the career ladder within your organisation. Research shows that employees who feel there is no scope for progression are much more likely to leave and therefore businesses risk losing their top talent to the competition.
Implementing effective development programmes within an organisation is important for a number of reasons. Not only does it help reduce attrition rates, it makes a business more attractive to applicants because they recognise that this will be a business they can grow with. Candidates are more likely to see themselves having a long term career with an organisation who invests in training and developing their staff.
Developing your future leader also prevents businesses suffering if a leader leaves or retires because vital skills would have been shared with the next generation who can step up when their time comes. For example; if a Workshop Controller suddenly leaves but you’ve upskilled a strong Senior Technician they could step into the role temporarily and minimise the disruption to the business.
Overall, developing future leaders and managers within a company is great for business but what is the best approach? Read on for our top tips…
Start at the beginning, recruitment.
Strong leaders have a significant impact on business success so succession planning needs to begin at the stage of recruitment. No matter what role you are hiring for you should be thinking ahead and asking yourself whether that candidate could progress into a leadership role because if you’re hiring a workforce with little potential it will be damaging in the long run. Shape your interview questions so that you can identify future leaders well in advance and this will give you a rich talent pool to develop in the months and years ahead.
Exposure across the business/ job rotation
The best leaders will have a solid understanding of the whole operation. They’ll know how every department feeds into to each other and what is required for the business to achieve success. The best way of gaining this knowledge and understanding is to experience different departments and job roles within the business. Allow your sales team to experience servicing roles and vice versa. This will allow you to see where their strengths lie and what area of work might be best suited to them in the future but also engages your employees in the wider organisational goals.
Formal Talent Development Strategy
By implementing a formal process of talent development you are giving employees clear direction towards promotion which is designed specifically to meet the needs of your business. This strategic approach generally delivers the best outcomes because progress can be measured and the process is consistent. Training can include a variety of approaches to develop a variety of skills from people management to dealing with adversity; internal processes to commercial awareness. It’s important to recognise that while you might role this out to all employees who are interested in progression, not all will stand out as leaders by the end but you will have a more highly skilled group of employees as well as being able to identify future leaders.
Mentoring
Assigning employees with more experienced member of staff as a mentor is a great way to share knowledge and develop the skills of those less experienced. Used in conjunction with more formal training, this process is a great way to identify future leaders, spot knowledge and skills gaps and align the employee on the best career path using their strongest skills. Mentoring also enables employees to build a relationship with their mentor, they can turn to them for advice and support which builds a positive internal culture within the business.
Feedback and Reviews
Having regular communication and open feedback between future leaders and senior management is key to keeping them engaged and on the right track. Feedback needs to be both ways, it’s important that if an element of the development programme isn’t working then managers are aware of this so that it can be addressed. Similarly, employees will want feedback on their performance and development so make sure that feedback sessions and reviews are booked in so that any issues can be identified early on.
If you are recruiting for management roles at your Automotive business and need assistance look no further. Perfect Placement is the leading recruitment provider for the Motor Trade and has access to the best candidates at all levels of seniority.
Our team of localised recruitment executives are on hand to discuss your needs so get in touch today!