A development plan built for a frontline workforce

Kickstart an employee development plan for your frontline workforce

Be involved

Like all relationships, trust, rapport and respect takes time and effort to be established. As managers, being involved in the daily tasks and development of your employees is essential to build the foundation of a employer-employee relationship. Furthermore, employees who respect their managers will be more receptive and open to initiatives (such as an employee development plan) rolled out by their managers.

Skills assessment

Conduct a skills assessment among employees to get a better idea of the skills that the employees are lacking, which hinder the productivity and overall objectives of the company. This will aid in creating a more comprehensive Employee Development Plan that targets employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

Evaluate company’s end goal

It is essential to take into account the company’s goals (both in the near future and long term plans) and align them with the Employee Development Plan. For example, a construction company may have plans to take on a major construction project. As managers, it is important to plan ahead by assessing if their workers are competent enough to fulfill the company project.

Understand employees’ objectives

An Employee Development Plan has to engage both the company and employees. Managers should schedule meetings with their employees to gain better insights into the employees’ personal long term goals and career aspirations.

Decide on suitable training methods

To properly target employees’ weaknesses, harness their strengths and yield the best results, proper training methods and management should be implemented. Especially for frontline workers, on-the-job and situational training go hand in hand with training in theory.

Set learning objectives & design

It is inevitable that amidst the chaos at work, managers and employees may overlook the importance of training and fail to set aside time for consistent training and skills revision. Setting aside a designated time to conduct and complete training is essential in any Employee Development Plan.

Learning assessments

Another crucial aspect of an Employee Development Plan is to track learners’ progress through learning assessments. This will give managers important insights into areas that need further improvement, while recognising areas which employees have developed in. Furthermore, managers will be able to tailor future trainings to focus on the topics and areas for employees that require more assistance.

Track results

Lastly is to track the progress and results of the Employee Development Plan. Apart from learning assessments, managers should also assess results on a company level, such as enhanced productivity, new skills utilised for problem solving and daily tasks, and completion rate of company projects or tasks.