Using assessments to drive organisational improvement: employee development, fast-tracking and promotion 

Recruiting the best talent won’t, on its own, guarantee long-term success. Providing employees with regular opportunities to develop their skills and competencies is crucial to retaining and advancing the talent which already exists within your organisation.

It’s a process that requires careful planning and execution, though. Enrolling staff on generic, one-size-fits-all development programmes is costly and ineffective. Instead, by targeting L&D provision based on individual employees’ needs, you’ll help your most valuable assets to realise their potential.

Taking a structured approach to employee development

We’ve spoken in another article, about using assessment centres to optimise recruitment outcomes. All the same factors hold true for exemplary corporate L&D programmes. By personalising the process and building analytics-informed professional development targets, employers are able to significantly impact individual and organisational performance.

Development centres can provide a valuable resource throughout the employee journey, assessing competence and indicating areas for development and improvement as individuals prepare to take on new responsibilities or are targeting opportunities for promotion. From the corporate perspective, taking this continuous-development approach – with the emphasis on comprehensively upskilling employees – not only boosts staff retention but also continuously refreshes the internal talent pool, a factor that’s crucially important when designing leadership programmes.

In fact, development centres can play a key role in companies’ broader talent management and succession planning strategies – particularly when it comes to cultivating high-potential employees (HiPos). By fostering a robust culture of continuous learning and development, organisations can create a pipeline of leadership candidates that will help their businesses grow in the long term.

And, because they receive valuable insights into their strengths and areas for growth, HiPos themselves are more likely to stick around. Good development centres create an immersive experience for employees which, in turn, elevates engagement and motivation levels and increases performance and job satisfaction. The process of reflection also improves individuals’ self-awareness, giving employees the tools they need to make informed decisions about their professional development.

Development centres have the resources to identify skills, competencies and leadership capabilities by:

• Selecting the high potential employees that will most benefit from focused L&D using performance appraisals, talent reviews and succession planning discussions.
• Assessing leadership candidates’ strengths, weaknesses and developmental needs via simulated and real-world workplace challenges that will test their decision-making, communication and problem-solving skills.
• Providing crucial feedback from assessors, peers and supervisors based on insights gained.
• Creating actionable development plans tailored to individual needs and career aspirations.
• Delivering ongoing support and development interventions, such as coaching and mentoring, to help participants build their skills and capabilities.

Nurturing high-potential talent

The rewards of implementing a successful HiPo L&D programme are significant. According to an influential Gartner study, HiPos are thought to bring 91 percent more value to their organisation and exert a fifth more effort than their non-HiPo peers. Moreover, their talent and commitment apparently rubs off on colleagues: adding a HiPo to a team elevates others’ productivity by as much as 15 percent.

No wonder, then, businesses are feeling the pressure to spot potential talent and create the professional development programmes that will get the best out of their HiPo team members and help drive their organisations forward.

Development centres can act as a valuable resource in this respect. There’s little doubt that the best, most impactful outcomes will emerge from close collaboration between all parties, resulting in a customised experience that’s designed to address specific development or performance needs.

Bespoke design and expert facilitation underpin consistent long-term success – an approach that is proven to achieve lasting improvements in employee performance. Experienced development professionals will also be able to sort the high performers – those that perform impressively as individuals – from the high potentials who are able to leverage their performance to a company’s collective benefit.

The power to flex and grow

Simply put, good development centres serve as catalysts for growth, acting as strategic partners, fostering innovation and enhancing productivity in a sustainable and replicable way. For visionary organisations, working with a development centre comprises an investment in the future, as they build skilled and motivated teams that are equipped to rise to the challenges of an ambiguous and rapidly evolving business landscape.

For employees, they can be equally transformative, offering a safe place in which they can advance their skills, pin down their strengths, and identify areas for improvement. Having access to this kind of personalised support not only increases job satisfaction and empowers individuals to navigate their career path with confidence, but also inculcates the kind of loyalty that gives businesses the edge in an increasingly competitive market.