Personnel Development: Definition, Standards, Plan & Programs

Personnel Development – Motivation and Career Success
Table of Contents

We all know that employees who are motivated and successful in their careers have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. But far too often, companies don’t invest enough time or money into developing their people.

This is a big mistake because there’s no better way to grow your business than by investing in your team. Personnel Development provides you with everything you need to help motivate and develop your employees so they can reach new levels of success in every aspect of their lives.

This article will explain what personnel development is and why it is crucial for your business’s success. Keep reading to find out more.

What is Personnel Development?

Personnel Development is any effort made by an organization, usually planned and implemented with significant resources, to increase the knowledge, skill, experience, commitment, or value of employees to improve their performance.

When an organization invests in its people, it paves the way for success. Personnel Development provides employees with opportunities to grow so they can perform at their best. But this type of development is more than just learning new skills.

It’s about helping employees find their passion and bringing out their full potential. This means that employees can more easily meet the challenges of their roles and gain valuable experience, which helps them to become better employees in the future.

What is Personnel Development

But the benefits of Personnel Development don’t stop there. It also gives employees a chance to gain exposure to new ideas.

In short, when your people develop, you achieve three main goals:

  • Your employees will be more productive (and as a result, more profitable) at work
  • They’ll be happier at home because they’re fulfilled in both their personal and professional lives
  • You’ll retain them longer because they see that they have opportunities for advancement within your company

What are the Benefits of Personnel Development

The benefits of personnel development are countless – it increases employee skills, boosts morale, improves retention, and reduces turnover.

These are just some of the reasons why organizations should take advantage of this opportunity to grow their people.

Let’s have a look at several benefits of Personnel Development.

List of 10 Personnel Development Benefits

  1. Boost employee morale
  2. Increase staff retention
  3. Develop new leaders
  4. Build a strong organizational culture
  5. Improve customer service
  6. Better Decision Making Skills
  7. Higher Productivity, Efficiency, and Performance
  8. Lead to New Personal Skills
  9. Improvement in employees’ interpersonal skills
  10. Enhance employee motivation

Personnel Development – Method & Program

People are generally motivated through extrinsic motivation by things that they need or want. For example, people are usually more productive when they’re incentivized to do so because they will have an extra drive to meet their goals.

This may come in the form of a bonus, promotion, or even praise from the boss. But intrinsic motivation is also important – it comes from inside your employees. You can help them build this type of motivation by creating a work environment focused on team spirit and collaboration.

The following two methods are effective at creating this type of environment.

Method 1: Educational Programs

Educational programs are a great way to give your employees knowledge on numerous different topics. These may include courses on time management, leadership, sales, or even computer skills.

But the best part? When you invest in your people’s education through company-sponsored training, you’ll drastically improve their day-to-day performance and work ethic. So if you want to keep them happy, look into the classes that will help them develop new skills.

Method 2: Mentoring Programs

Mentorships are another fantastic way for organizations to show their commitment to developing their team – because it gives employees access to an experienced “buddy” who provides advice and guidance for success.

However, it’s important to note that this relationship shouldn’t be one-sided – mentors must also take their mentees under their wing and ensure they’re supported.

You can even build this initiative into your company culture by inviting new employees to ‘mentor’ their peers. This way, they’ll grow to become better leaders and learn how to support other people in the workplace.

Personnel Development – Goals & Plans

In general, it’s important to share your goals and plans with your team because you want them to buy into what you’re doing. Make sure that they know why these goals are important and how this is going to impact their lives in the future.

Talking about the company’s future is a good way to get an understanding of what employees want in their careers. Goals that are related to business development should resonate with employees.

For instance, if your organization is working on increasing its number of clients, then you want to be able to discuss how this will impact everyone in the future.

Since teamwork is so important here, it’s also good for managers to come up with specific goals that involve more than one person. When discussing goals and plans with an employee, it’s important to show them what they’ll gain by helping the company succeed long term.

While there are certainly short-term benefits, such as extra money or bonuses, focusing on these alone may cause people not to buy into your vision. Instead, talk about how success now will lead to better opportunities down the line.

Personnel Development – Goals & Plans

The best type of goals involve milestones that are easy to follow. For instance, something like “complete a certification” is much more concrete than “try hard at work.” It’s not impossible to get your staff to buy into vague ideas – but it will be a lot harder.

When employees share their goals with you, make sure that you listen and show them how they can effectively accomplish this. As a manager, it’s important to encourage everyone who wants to pursue professional development opportunities.

In addition, if you’re aware of specific programs or courses that employees may be interested in taking part in, mention these as well. It’s true; some people may have difficulty achieving personal or professional goals due to extenuating circumstances. Maybe they have a chronic illness or maybe they have family responsibilities that interfere with their job.

In this case, it’s important to work together so you can find a way to reach your goals without putting too much pressure on the employee. It’s also true that not everyone shares the same goals.

Some individuals may be perfectly happy where they are and don’t want to chase after promotions or take challenging courses. This is fine; it’s important to realize that different people want different things from their jobs and careers.

As long as you’re honest about what you expect from employees, then everyone should be able to figure out whether or not, they will be able to move forward.

How to Improve Personnel Development

The first step to improving personnel development is to establish the benefits. This will help increase people’s buy-in on the topic. You can also try to institute new methods for developing your people, such as educational programs and mentoring programs.

If you can get your team involved in these initiatives, they’ll be committed to the cause and much more willing to cooperate – simply because it’s something they’re interested in doing.

Personnel Development – How to Improve

But what happens if this isn’t enough? If your employees still aren’t motivated to participate or make use of the new development opportunities, you could focus on creating a work environment that supports teamwork and collaboration – where specific goals are encouraged yet self-development is also a priority.

To do this, you need to create a culture where people feel that they have purpose and that their work is valuable. You can also implement company initiatives that are designed to boost morale, such as holiday bonuses or celebratory dinners.

It may take a significant amount of effort – but when employees know that you’re invested in them and committed to helping them succeed both personally and professionally, your personnel development will pay off. As for the individual, you can improve your motivation by setting achievable goals and desired results.

This will not only create a sense of focus and purpose, but it’ll also give you something to work toward. So before you try something new or adopt a different policy, consider what type of change will bring about the best outcome – and where your employees’ benefits lie in this.

5 Example of Weak Personnel Development

Weak development occurs when you reject the aforementioned suggestions and create an environment that doesn’t support professional development.

For example, instead of creating a collaborative atmosphere with teamwork opportunities, employees are pitted against each other in a high-stress setting. As a result, morale decreases, and they become unmotivated to grow or move forward.

To avoid this issue:

Create team missions and challenges so people feel more connected to the company and their peers

Avoid focusing on individual performances

When you focus too much on individual performance, your people will begin to compete against one another rather than work cooperatively towards shared goals.

If your team cares more about being better than their peers instead of being the best they can be individual, you’ll encounter problems with teamwork – not just motivation.

Create policies that are designed to support professional development

Focus on giving clear feedback so new skills can be effectively developed

Giving clear feedback is critical in the process of developing your employees. Your team members should know when they’re excelling, and they’ll also need to know where they can improve if their work isn’t up to par.

Not only will this increase motivation, but it’ll enhance skill development as well. The more you show that you care about your employees’ success, the more likely they are to want to succeed too.

Encourage your employees to improve themselves by participating in educational programs or mentoring programs (instead of struggling alone)

When employees feel like they’re supported and appreciated, they’ll be more likely to give their all. They won’t hesitate to ask for help when they get stuck or make mistakes, and this will speed up the process of skill development.

Developing your team doesn’t have to be a complicated affair. With all of the information at your disposal, you can make powerful changes to create a team-based environment that supports professional development.

Recognizing Bad Personnel Development in an Organization

What happens when the above-mentioned initiatives just aren’t enough? If your employees still don’t seem interested in improving themselves or making use of development opportunities, what’s the answer?

Instead of creating a collaborative atmosphere with teamwork opportunities, employees may find themselves pitted against one another in a high-stress environment. The result is a culture of competition rather than teamwork because employees want to be seen as better than their peers, not just the best that they can be individual.

Another example involves failing to give clear feedback. If team members don’t know when they’re excelling or making mistakes, it’s going to be impossible for them to improve – which will lead to motivation issues down the line.

In addition, rewarding individual performance without recognizing the value of teamwork may cause your people to begin competing with each other instead of building rapport and encouraging collaboration.

It’ll also weaken development opportunities because employees won’t have access to educational programs or mentorship opportunities if they’re too busy trying to outshine one another.

Even if you don’t want to institute team-based development initiatives, you must recognize the importance of individual and peer-to-peer feedback. It’ll be very difficult for your employees to improve without this information – even with training programs and mentorship opportunities. It’s true; some people may thrive in a competitive environment where they can shine as individuals.

But when this type of culture is forced upon everyone, no one benefits. Employee development will decrease because employees won’t have access to the tools they need to grow personally or professionally.

To effectively support professional development, focus on teamwork while also encouraging self-development whenever possible.

Personnel Development Vs Personal Development

The difference between personnel development and personal development is subtle, but it’s important to understand. In short, you can think of personnel development as a company-wide effort to make sure that employees are trained and developed enough to support the goals of the entire organization.

By contrast, personal development involves individuals working to achieve their own goals. A good workplace will have room for both types of development. If your company values teamwork, then it would be beneficial for everyone to participate in a mandatory training course every year – this would count as personnel development.

At the same time, many people love mentorship opportunities, which encourage professional growth while also giving back to others – so this also counts as personal development. While some people may feel like it’s impossible to pursue both types of development – it’s not.

Personal development can be a secondary goal in many cases: for instance, if you want to upgrade your skills and learn more about marketing to see how to better sell yourself, this could fall under personal development.

If you also want to increase your knowledge so that you’re eligible for a promotion at your current job, then this would count as personnel development.

Personnel Development F.A.Q

What is personnel development in HRM?

In human resource management, personnel development is essential. Development in HRM involves increasing your productivity, improving self awareness, building interpersonal skills, finding your strengths, and identifying your weak points. Then, the manager finds how the application of these skills and abilities can benefit the team.

What is the purpose of employee development?

The purpose of employee development is finding employee strengths and furthering them. At the same time, development allows individuals to target their weaknesses and help them become strengths.

If you successfully develop as an employee, the business becomes more successful and the employee is more productive, engaged, loyal, and positive as a whole.

What is employee professional development?

Employee professional development, or just professional development, is the process of employees targeting their skills for growth. They find new ways to gain skills, train to better themselves, and find mentors to support them so their knowledge is increased.

What is personnel and human resource management?

Both human resource and personnel management help organizations stay organized in regards to hiring and keeping track of employees.

These activities help maintain the team spirit, keep compensation fair, promote the wellness of employees, boost mental health, help employers analyze employee progress, and help employees grow as workers.

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