Page 3 - The Leadership Line: August 2022

3. Job Enrichment – Job enrichment means improvement in the quality of the job. Through job
enrichment, an employee finds contentment in their job. These opportunities typically exist internally
that will benefit an employee’s current role, while creating additional ways to develop. Examples could
include presentations at team meetings, joining a diversity committee, or volunteering.
4. Job Shadowing – Job shadowing is a type of on-the-job training that allows an employee to follow and
closely observe another employee performing the role. It can be a great way for your employees to learn
critical elements of other jobs, while further developing in their own. It is also a great way for employees
to explore potential career opportunities internally, yet outside of their current job.

5. Job Rotation – Providing an opportunity for your team to move and rotate through one or more
positions is another great strategy in employee development. Rotations can last for days, months, or
even a year or two. Employees could volunteer to rotate roles with colleagues on a shift/team to practice
some of the new skills they have gained. This is a method for employees who have indicated their desire
to get practical experience to develop some additional skills. The goal is to rotate the tasks and roles to
learn something new or have a chance to practice what has been learned. This type of cross-training
is also beneficial to the project/customer as it makes employee outages and surge periods easier to
accommodate.
6. Stretch assignments – This method involves working with employees to understand where they wish
to improve, and then finding assignments to develop those skills. Typically, the assignments will push
the boundaries of an employee’s existing role/responsibility, to expand its scope to include additional
skills needing development. Stretch assignments could either be horizontal (tasking an employee to use
additional skills to do more work similar, but not the same, to their existing role), or vertical (extending
the scope of an employee’s role to cover downstream or up-stream responsibilities).
While formal training is important and can be effective in aspects of development, Jerome Ternynck,
founder and CEO of Smart Recruiters, states that on-the-job experiences account for up to 75 percent of
effective learning! This includes stretch assignments, job enrichment, job enlargement, job rotation, and
job shadowing.

Want to learn more about Mentoring?
Check out our November 2021 Leadership Line Issue: Mentoring

Understand Your Employees’ Motivations

A critical part of these ongoing career development conversations is understanding what your employees are trying
to get out of their current roles.
Is this role a means to an end and they are trying to get to the next rung on the ladder, or are there certain skills
they are looking to acquire so they can continue to be a specialist in this segment? Recognizing what employees
are hoping to get out of the role is the best way to provide support and stretch assignments that make sense. Career
development conversations shouldn’t be saved just for Annual Performance Reviews. During your check-ins and
one-on-ones, don’t hesitate to ask your employees how they feel about their development.
Sometimes in business, it’s all about “what’s the plan?” and “what’s the next step?” But if an employee is happy,
concentrate on keeping them satisfied and then touch base in another couple of months. It’s important to pay
attention to whether an employee truly wants to be promoted—especially into leadership. Bad leaders are often a
reason that other employees leave the organization, so it’s important to get the leadership right.