Professional Development

By Neal Glatt, Managing Partner, GrowTheBench • Email: Neal@GrowTheBench.com • GrowTheBench.com

Organizations fail to thrive when their people don’t have the skills and knowledge to perform at the highest level. As turfgrass professionals, we understand that the right environment allows plants to grow to their full potential. But what does a growth environment look like for an employee? Could it be that our team would have more success if the culture was more conducive to employee development?

Only about half of all employees globally strongly agree that they have had opportunities to learn and grow in the past year according to Gallup. Yet the ones who do work harder and more efficiently, return 9% higher customer loyalty and 10% higher profit than undeveloped employees. What’s more, employees who are given the right growth opportunities are twice as likely to spend their career with their organization.

For business leaders, the return on investment is clear. Paying for employee development will reap massive return on efficiency, profit, and retention. Setting a budget for each employee’s growth is the first step. One of the best ways to do this is by organizational level. Front line employees may be eligible for one hour per week of paid training on-the-job. Crew leaders may be given access to an online platform like GrowTheBench.com in addition to their paid training time. Mid-level managers may be eligible to attend one conference annually. Senior level leaders should perhaps have an executive coach or academic program budgeted.

Whatever budget is set, there are three keys to selecting the right employee development opportunities for each person. First, employee development must be individualized to the employee. That means it should be relevant to their role at the company with tangible outcomes in their current and future responsibilities. But it also means that leaders must consider the motivations, strengths, and blind spots of each worker. Nothing is more exhausting than training that feels remedial, so letting each person help select their developmental plan will create the greatest buy-in from everyone. These conversations should be collaborative and encouraging.

Second, development must be intentional. The reason that most people never grow is because their progress is never discussed or encouraged. When time isn’t set aside purposefully, development simply doesn’t happen. A stagnant organization is one that has not expressly prioritized employee growth. Part of intentional developmental opportunities is having goal setting and accountability. Just like in horticulture where we would never plant a tree and then expect it to grow without frequent check-ins to adjust for changing conditions, each employee needs to be encouraged and checked-in with weekly.

Finally, employee growth must be ongoing from onboarding through promotion. Growth and development are a long and slow process where consistency breeds the best outcome. Teams which maintain intentional time for growth even during busy seasons are the ones which find the greatest return. Those who only invest in themselves when convenient are often frustrated by a lack of results. When employees stop being developed, they tend to look elsewhere for work. In fact, 93% of the time that employees changed their role, they left their organization to do so. It’s clear that growth will lead to retention if it’s continuous.

No matter how you choose to develop your team, you’ll never regret the investment if you commit to consistent, intentional, and individualized development.