Let’s get one thing straight: development isn’t a tuition reimbursement plan. That’s a checkbook, not a commitment. And while some companies throw dollars at degrees hoping for ROI, most get little more than a receipt.
Meanwhile, leaders keep hearing the same thing from their teams: “We want to grow.” Here’s the rub: growth takes more than money. It takes a plan, accountability, and a serious shift in how we think about fairness. Fairness is not about treating everyone the same.
Very few organizations have the tolerance for committing to the funding of a tuition reimbursement program when few have realized any ROI. Executives continue to hear from team members who want to increase their skill set, but often feel it’s a one-sided proposition. There also seems to be a confusion around needing to offer the same options for everyone. Being fair does not mean being equal!
At The Metiss Group, we’ve worked with organizations of all sizes, both as direct employees of other organizations and since our humble beginnings as trusted advisors. We’ve seen lavish programs with no guard rails and much abuse of the system, and we’ve seen impressive results from incredibly limited budgets which were more judiciously administered.
In this article, we’ll review various aspects of well structured development programs including:
- Who Needs an Employee Development Plan in Your Organization?
- The Four Key Areas of Employee Development (and How to Strengthen Each One)
- Who Owns the Success of an Employee Development Plan?
- How to Structure a Development Plan That Tracks and Measures Progress
- How to Justify Investing in High-Potential Employees (Without Alienating Others)
Who Needs an Employee Development Plan in Your Organization?
In a perfect world: everyone! Exhale – I didn’t say you need to spend money on everyone’s development. Not all development requires a financial investment.
If you grow your company by just 5% year over year and you don’t grow your team by at least that much, your organization will outgrow the talent in your team.
The foundation of development is: the only constant is change. If we’re going to be prepared to deal with changes that come our way, we’re best prepared by making our minds nimble enough to learn new things.
Even people who “just make the donuts” are met with new recipes, new equipment, new sprinkles, less food dyes, etc. Having people stuck in “that’s the way we’ve always done it” can bring your organization to a screeching halt.
The Four Key Areas of Employee Development (and How to Strengthen Each One)
You’ve undoubtedly heard people challenged to grow mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When we convert those categories to the workplace we have intellectual or skill development, health, relationships, and culture.
Intellectual Development
If someone were to take on a development plan to grow their intellectual capacity, critical thinking, or hard skills, this might sometimes fall into the category of tuition reimbursement, but not always. There are plenty of books, online resources, internal mentoring programs and more to support this focus.
Certainly, if the desire is to support someone’s MBA, or CPA designation, that might fall into tuition reimbursement, but I wouldn’t advise starting there. It’s best for you to challenge an individual in whom you might financially invest in the future, to prove their commitment to their own development with alternative undertakings to start.
Health Development
A focus on health can be a great asset to an organization. Lowering one's cholesterol, exercising more for more energy and mental clarity, and even focusing on the quality of one’s sleep can be a tremendous benefit to the organization.
We’ve had a couple of clients whose senior leaders neglected their health for too long. In one case, the senior member of the team had a cardiac incident he survived after a multiple bi-pass surgery and months of rehabilitation; the other senior leader wasn’t as fortunate. In both cases, the organizations were rocked off balance by the sudden absence of key people.
Relationship Development
Imagine how amazing it would be for team members to focus on their emotional intelligence and relationships! What if sales team members worked on improving their relationships with operations, or operations with accounting, or anyone in the organization with challenging clients or vendors? Sometimes it’s a matter of focus and intentionality, but other times may require some organizational support if a program to improve emotional intelligence is deemed the right answer.
Culture Development
The right culture can be an illusive dream if not consciously pursued and protected at every layer of the organization. A development plan designed to strengthen or recapture a diluted culture can have exponentially positive effects. More engagement, more collaboration, more accountability, easier recruiting, higher retention, and the list continues.
Who Owns the Success of an Employee Development Plan?
No doubt: the employee being developed is the person completely responsible for accomplishing their development plan. The leader can provide encouragement, coaching/mentorship, guidance and HR can provide resources and some direction, but if the individual is not committed to their own development, it’ll never happen.
A few years ago, we had a team member named Peyton who was bright, enthusiastic, and vocal about wanting growth. We offered books, mentorship, even a workshop with one of our senior coaches. But weeks passed. Nothing. Not one step taken. And it hit us: desire without effort isn’t development. That experience still shapes how we define readiness to invest.
How to Structure a Development Plan That Tracks and Measures Progress for Employees
Every development plan MUST have a measurable and time-based goal, which allows for measurable and time-based action steps.
Let’s say the topic is to lose weight. A few years back, our Pastor talked about New Year’s resolutions and mentioned his way to lose 50 pounds this year. I caught him outside and exclaimed, “Fr. Mike - that’s a small child! Isn’t that a huge goal?” He said, “that’s about 4 pounds a month, or one pound a week - I can do that!” About a month later I asked how he was doing, and he said he was ahead of schedule so he was going to reward himself with a Guinness later today!”
If your team member has a measurable and time-based goal, they can easily create small action steps that are measurable and time-based so you and they can both celebrate successes and track progress.
How to Justify Investing in High-Potential Employees (Without Alienating Others)
As I mentioned before, being fair does not necessarily mean being equal. If you have one team member who is spending extra time out of work to invest in their own development and showing progress, isn’t it fair to continue to invest in that person over the person who keeps telling you they “don’t have time” to read a book, listen to a podcast, commit to any exercise, etc.?
Why would you spend money investing in a formal leadership development program for someone who hasn’t demonstrated any desire, effort, or progress in more simple development?
If certain members of your team are demonstrating effort and progress in personal or professional development, it only makes good business sense to make further investment in the individuals from whom you’re most likely to get a good ROI. These are your future leaders; you must invest in them.
It’s a matter of setting up development plans for everyone. Start with those plans that require time and effort investment by the team member, with you tracking and encouraging progress and celebrating successes. If you see the effort and the progress, then you can decide to financially invest further.
Investing in the development of others is more than the financial investment; it’s the time, effort and tracking of progress that translates to the commitment of the organization to the growth of the entire organization and everyone in it.
Ready to strengthen your leadership team? Book a call with The Metiss Group to get started.
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