By Terkel
What is one way you are growing the emerging talent at your company?
To help business leaders develop the talent at their company, we asked CEOs and business professionals this question for their best pieces of advice. From creating a mentorship program to promoting project autonomy, there are several ways that may help you nurture the talent at your company for years to come.
Here are 13 strategies to grow emerging talent at your company:
Framing Failures as Stepping Stones
Providing Networking Opportunities
Understanding Employee’s Passions
Continuing Education Efforts
Strengthen the Leadership
Investing Into the Community
Compile a Collaborative List of Resources
Create a Mentorship Program
Add New Talent to High-Visibility Projects
Provide Stretch Assignments
Hire From Various Locales
Provide Feedback and Reviews
Promote Project Autonomy
Framing Failures as Stepping Stones
We are growing our emerging talent constantly. We do so by encouraging continued education, setting challenging goals, and allowing everyone to take on tasks that they have never done before. Understand that it is acceptable to fail as long as you learn from it and constantly grow. We are all a team and the stronger we work together the better we will be.
-Justin Folts, L.Keeley
Providing Networking Opportunities
One of the greatest things we can do to support our emerging talent is to surround them with a network of peers who they can learn alongside in a safe environment. Young Nonprofit Professionals Network Phoenix works to foster this environment through opportunities for networking, leadership, and partnership building. Giving emerging leaders the opportunities to practice these skills alongside trusted peers, helps them be more confident in their day-to-day work. They can test out new skills or interest and get feedback from trusted individuals without feeling like their "job is at stake" if they make a mistake.
-Adrian Jamieson, YNPN Phoenix
Understanding Employee’s Passions
Help out emerging talent in your organization by carving out a path for them. You can do this by taking what they're passionate about and providing them with opportunities to develop their skills. Using their passion, they can contribute meaningfully to the company and build their career.
-Tri Nguyen, Network Capital
Continuing Education Efforts
In my day job, I work to help promote short-term career training programs that are designed to be affordable and convenient for busy schedules! Whether someone wants to start a new career or advance in their current company, upskilling is a great solution! Going back to school is even better for employees working at companies with a tuition assistance program. Maricopa Corporate College and the Maricopa Community Colleges offer flexible, short-term career training.
-Jennifer Granillo, Maricopa Corporate College
Strengthen the Leadership
One way to grow your emerging talent is to start with leadership. By developing leaders into stronger coaches, each member of that team will grow and develop. When the leader can set a path for each employee based on their current level, it not only strengthens the individual but the team as a whole. A coaching culture sets a really nice tone of achievement, growth, and accountability.
-Jenn Christie, Markitors
Investing Into the Community
At our company, we are lucky enough to have a number of programs where we get to meet talented, passionate individuals. Our Young Professionals Who Care program is one of my favorite ways to meet younger talent and then work alongside them in our community. We initially meet our young professionals through events and volunteering, but by continuing to foster those relationships, we end up with corporations heavily involved with nonprofits and bettered communities. Communities and talent are bolstered through human connection.
-Kjirstin Pond, Amanda Hope
Compile a Collaborative List of Resources
Each quarter at our company, managers draft up an Excel sheet for all team members to complete with a list of online courses, conferences, and books that they'd like to either attend or have shipped to them. During this process, employees discuss useful courses, conferences, or books that they've heard about and why they'd be useful for the work each team does. This is one way to grow talent from the bottom up, allowing the employees themselves to have the initiative.
-Daniel Torres, Zety
Create a Mentorship Program
One of our most effective ways of growing and developing emerging talent at the company is by pairing our employees up with mentors within the company. Having a manager can be great, but having a mentor that has been where you have been and seen it through to the other side is very effective at growing and developing talent.
-Lauren Picasso, Cure Hydration
-Provide Stretch Assignments
A great way to grow talent within an organization is to offer "stretch assignments." Provide interested employees with the opportunity to work on a project that is outside of their normal scope of responsibility or participate in an assignment outside of their regular team. Budget a few hours each week for motivated team members to work on side projects and creative ideas that will help them expand their skills and engage creatively in the workplace. Whether you're in retail, education, engineering, or farming, allowing employees to participate in activities that are outside of their day-to-day is a great way to keep them engaged and encourage them to continue to expand their skill set, which benefits both them and your company!
-Niki Ramirez, HRAnswers.org
Add New Talent to High-Visibility Projects
We have our emerging talent lead high-visibility projects, while their leaders play a supporting role on the same project. This gives the employee two key benefits. First, they can directly show their progress, their competence, and their emotional intelligence. Secondly, the employee’s manager can quickly spot obstacles and coach the employee through it.
-Dakota Fog, BD
Hire From Various Locales
Remote work has given employees a new opportunity to apply for jobs outside their hometowns. However, companies profit from this new normal, too. Candidates have more options and flexibility and employers can choose their new employees from a much broader talent pool. At our company, we also look for new candidates with diversified backgrounds, unique skills, and experience from different locations. Our goal is to hire people that genuinely resonate with our values and culture. We’ve observed that remote work is a way forward for many of our employees. That’s why we want to continuously hire talented people, no matter where they’re located.
-Dorota Lysienia, LiveCareer
Provide Feedback and Reviews
When you are running a team in an organization, you will want to gauge how each of your employees is doing overtime. One of the best ways to do so is to have monthly or bi-monthly review meetings so that you can talk to each employee about their work ethic. During this one-on-one session, you can go over the employee's current progress, how they have been doing since last month, and what goals to set for the next monthly meeting. By setting these goals and expectations, there will be more competitiveness within the workplace and will make the top-tier workers’ growth continue.
-Nina Jensen, 8x8
Promote Project Autonomy
Our company nurtures emerging talent by empowering team members to spearhead creative projects. While there is a creative development team in charge of designing new products, we also empower individuals to propose and shape new events. This freedom adds a variety of perspectives and ideas to our events which would not be possible with a sole creator. In turn, our clients benefit from richer offerings. Beyond product offerings, we also permit staff side projects in areas like writing, graphic design, and company events. These outlets help staff sharpen creativity, flex autonomy, and make a more direct contribution to the workplace.
-Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding
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