Professional Development’s Link to the Employee Value Proposition

A recent survey of American workers by The Harris Poll found that while 90% of respondents are actively learning or developing new skills on the job, 45% do not realize that their professional experience could count toward a college degree.

Among those without a college degree, that number rises to 57%, according to the survey. Even professional training and prior coursework are undervalued: 43% of respondents doubt training courses would qualify for credit, and 33% don’t believe previous college coursework could transfer.

For HR and total rewards (TR) professionals, this highlights an opportunity for organizations to set up a system and culture that:

• Advances their workforce; and,
• Encourages the kind of career development and acknowledgement that many employees seek.

Access a bonus Workspan Daily Plus+ article on this subject:

• How to Help Workers Convert Hands-On Experience into Education Credits

It’s About the Journey

According to Erik Henry-Smetana, the managing director and operations leader of public-sector and higher-education compensation at risk management and consulting firm Gallagher, there is a difference between learning goals and performance goals.

Learning goals are about the journey, whereas performance goals are often about the destination, he said. The former can focus on skill building, knowledge enrichment, professional development, and creating new ideas and products, while the latter are often metricized and tied to outcomes.

“Learning goals may feed performance goals, and performance goals may inform the direction of learning goals, but they are unique unto themselves and serve different purposes,” Henry-Smetana explained.

Most organizations place a premium on performance goals and treat learning goals as an afterthought, said Angela Berg, the founder of HR advisory firm Perelaks.

“But that’s a mistake,” she said. “When employees are actively developing new skills and knowledge, they’re not just growing personally, they’re directly strengthening the organization’s long-term capability, and the best practice is to make learning goals as weighted as performance goals.”

Removing the Barriers

The biggest barrier to that approach may come from how organizations define and reward performance.

“Most employees simply don’t have the bandwidth to chase optional learning goals that don’t visibly ‘count’ toward their performance evaluation,” Berg said. “That’s why it’s so important for goals to include not just hard targets, but also well-defined skills and competencies that apply consistently across roles.”

The Harris Poll also found 72% of survey respondents declined professional development opportunities, citing cost (35%) or scheduling conflicts (32%).

Additionally, 55% of the surveyed workers have paid out-of-pocket for training their employer did not cover, and nearly a quarter have done so more than once. Among those without degrees, almost half have self-financed training.

According to Berg, when learning and growth opportunities are built into what success looks like — and not treated as an extracurricular activity — there’s a real incentive for employees to participate.

“Otherwise, we unintentionally teach people to play it safe and avoid the very kind of learning that drives innovation and long-term results,” she said.

Organizational culture can be another possible challenge.

“For employees who want to grow their careers … many organizations are downsizing, not expanding,” Berg said, adding that for many organizations, learning opportunities aren’t universal.

“While some managers are great about encouraging development and making time for it, others may unintentionally gatekeep by prioritizing immediate deliverables,” she said. “To truly embed learning into the culture, the pathway has to be consistent and transparent for everyone.”

The Employee Value Proposition

When an organization considers their TR program as an outcome, influencer and driver of their employment value proposition, it can enable a learning orientation “both in the delivery of employee learning and development as a benefit and in terms of how the pieces of the people strategy link to culture,” Henry-Smetana said.

While formal education and conferences have a place in learning, coaching and mentorship programs are resonating with today’s workforce and allow for focused development with immediate on-the-job application, added Laura Ford, a senior consultant in the HR consulting practice at Gallagher.

“Developing learning pathways based on the individual culture and the needs of employees is more difficult than a one-and-done training workshop,” she said.

Employers also can reward employees for taking “reasonable” risks, said Cynthia J. Young, the founder and CEO of CJ Young Consulting LLC, a knowledge management consulting firm.

Learning happens even when failures occur, she said, but positive public recognition can be reenforced by the employer noting learning still occurred and the employee’s attempt brought additional knowledge to the organization.

“This may also encourage others to try — even in the fear of failure — to reach new learning goals,” Young said.

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Employee Experience
• Employee Recognition
• Workforce Engagement