The Personnel Development is a sub-division of Human Resources. Personnel Development comprises all measures for the promotion and further training of employees, managers and future managers.
The aim of Personnel Development is to ensure employability and thus the long-term success of the company, but also to contribute to employee motivation.
In general, Personnel Development distinguishes between position-oriented and potential-oriented promotion. In the former, an employee is developed towards a specific position in the company. With potential-oriented promotion, on the other hand, it is not yet clear which position a particular employee will later occupy. Instead, the aim is to build up a company-wide talent pool of qualified employees that can be drawn on when vacancies need to be filled.
Personnel Development is therefore a win-win situation, because on the one hand the company covers its personnel requirements by making optimum use of its own resources and on the other hand employees are given the opportunity to gain prospective qualifications.
Personnel Development and employee retention
Personnel Development is also a particularly important form of employee retention. After all, employees will only remain with a company in the long term if they are constantly given the opportunity to develop individually and discover new career prospects.
Therefore, companies should also offer their employees the opportunity to attend seminars or events that are not specifically related to their field of work. As a result, employees can acquire qualifications that serve personal development and development.
Instruments and measures of the Personnel Development
- Job Enlargement, in the sense of an expansion of tasks. In Job Enlargement, the work content is expanded by new tasks. Job enlargement primarily means a quantitative expansion of the field of activity. In addition, there can also be a qualitative component. In the case of job enlargement, it should be noted that the tasks are easy to learn and remain feasible even in combination with the previous ones. Job enlargement can then lead to the elimination of monotony and the strengthening of self-esteem.
- Job enrichment is an enrichment of activity. This means that the content of the work is enriched by factually related, higher-value activities.
- Job rotation, i.e. a change of job. A job rotation can be used to provide additional qualifications (on-the-job training). The aim is to reduce the stress of monotonous activities.
- Project work is used to solve complex, usually cross-departmental tasks or problems. Project groups are usually made up of members from different departments and different hierarchical levels. They therefore bring complementary knowledge, experience and skills to the table.
- Coaching is a particularly intensive form of support. The coach advises on day-to-day work tasks, but especially on problems in the work area. He supports the employee in overcoming difficulties by working with him to develop solution models. Coaching is a time-limited personnel development process.
- Mentoring: Mentors often act in a similar way to coaches. Mentoring programs are particularly suitable for aspiring executives who are coached by experienced managers from the company. Mentors also benefit from the experience and knowledge of their mentees.
- Off-the-job are further training measures that take place outside the workplace, e.g. seminars, courses, distance learning, etc.
Success factors of the Personnel Development
Personnel development measures should be reviewed regularly. There are several options for verification, ranging from interview to employee observation and transfer control in the workplace. If it turns out that the content has not been conveyed to the extent that would have been necessary for a successful change, the reason must be determined and a redesign or redesign of the development action must take place.
The personnel development interview is also an important tool. This creates a regular and binding framework for identifying, defining and subsequently evaluating the employees' assessment of potential, development needs and development wishes in a joint dialogue.
Supporting software is also available for the strategic Personnel Development . This helps to systematically identify the current need for development and training measures and to implement the resulting measures immediately.
