Here’s the €1,000,000 question: How can our employees grow? The question is so dear to our hearts because if they do not grow, it is one of the primary reasons why companies lose or risk losing their top talents, as well as limiting business and company progression.
Employee growth to its full potential is not going to happen by just doing their day-by-day jobs. It needs to be planned. Objectively. If managers want to be deliberate about developing their resources (which they should), they need to identify the elements that they can use to guide them in the right direction. Here are some ways in which companies can set the stage for a healthy career path:
- Performance Evaluations
- Full, documented job definitions and descriptions
- SMART objectives
- Internal Moves
- International assignments
- Executive MBA
- Extra projects
- Succession planning
- Going the Extra Mile
While points 1-8 are relatively common among organizations’ talent development and promotion plans, the impact of point 9, Going the Extra Mile is generally underestimated or even unknown.
What does going the Extra Mile mean?
It means going above and beyond what is expected of one’s role. Generally speaking, those who go there love the company they work for, aim for continuous improvement, are fully engaged and aligned to the company goals and are a great culture fit. Here are some examples of an employee who has gone that extra mile:
- Has received an award
- Is an ambassador of some sort for the company
- Has received recognition in a company event
- Has made successful employee referrals
- Has made efforts within the community representing the company
- Is someone’s mentor or buddy
- Volunteers to present or take training sessions
- Is recognized as an exceptional People Manager (encouraging their top talents to move internally to other teams to enable further growth)
- Has received unsolicited, positive feedback from colleagues and/or customers
- Has been recognized for their frugality
- Is mirroring some of their manager’s job
- Is a solid coach for people outside their team or company
In a nutshell, those who go the Extra Mile are leading by example, and that, in itself is a masterful mechanism to recognize they are growing professionally.
For the many ways in which you can tell if your employees are developing and growing in their roles, it is important that these fit into the company’s culture and belief foundations. In order to recognize the Extra Mile as a threshold for career growth, it needs to be deeply embedded into the “Reasons to Promote” company manuscript.
5 reasons why companies should build the “Extra Mile” into their Reasons to Promote
- Employer Brand – It makes for a healthy, modern, state-of-the-art company to work for
- Company culture – developing a stronger internal identity
- It supports company progression
- It gives a temperature check on Engagement and Retention
- It can contribute to Recruitment efforts (Employer brand and Employee Referrals)
Fundamentally, if employees are not being recognized for going the extra mile, why should they do it? It’s a win-win, where the employee benefits as (s)he is recognized as part of their growth plan and the company benefits from the employee delivering beyond expectations. 👍
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