02. Employee development

 

The pace of change, uncertainty, changeableness and uncertainty of events, as well as strengthened development of modern technology dynamically shape the work environment influencing trends and methods used in employee development. Expectations change, developmental forms evolve and the need for new tools and training emerges (Williams, 2020). Currently, human capital development is no longer just a set of organized, time-based activities aimed at changing human behavior (Swanson and Holton, 2008), but the a shift is occurring from formal training to shaping a culture of lifelong individual development (Sloman, 2007; Morgan-Klein and Osborne, 2007; Jarvis, 2010); this shift encourages learning, teaching and re-learning in the course of work (Bersin, 2018; Gottfredson and Mosher, 2010; Wong and Aspinwall, 2004). Employees are expected to take more responsibility for enhancing current skills and adding new ones to meet current job demands, prepare for leadership opportunities and ensure their own employability to move and adapt within and between organizations as needed (Molloy and Noe, 2010). Such a new approach is required by the dynamic times of VUCA, i.e. the environment in which organizations currently operate. Volatility means that it is increasingly difficult to predict future events, their pace and scale. Examples include the digitalization of the labour market, the intensification of migration flows in Europe, global conflicts, as well as the current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, a struggle for the entire world. All this leads to a sense of uncertainty and anxiety. Change is more rapid than before and has a global reach affecting businesses, the economy and social attitudes. The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has consequences on many levels – in the health sector, the economy, the labour market, education, perception to technological advances technology or the approach to new related, legal regulations. It turns out that new technology is crucial in the fight against the crisis, because it enables communication and remote work or online learning on an unprecedented scale. The key advantage of incorporating collaborative technologies into the learning environment is that users are able to have constant accessibility on the training materials (on-demand) from anywhere using various devices (Fake and Dabbagh, 2020). At the country level, a nation’s human resource development (HRD) policy and human resource trainings schemes become catalyst for the growth of the workforce’s productivity, especially in the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which requires advanced technological knowledge (Man, 2020). To some extent, the crisis has also forced us to face a number of outstanding issues related to the scale of technological interference in both professional and private life. It raises uncomfortable questions about how to approach the use of digital technologies and data in the spirit of common European values, with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Deep transformations in many areas of life are not over yet – we are in the process. This also applies to human resources at the companies. This pandemic also redefined the area of learning and development in organizations (Training Magazine, 2019; Kshirsagar et al., 2020; Jingfang and Yates, 2020; CIPID, 2020; Gartner Report, 2020; Raheja, 2021). Development in companies is a topic more important than ever today. The time of radical changes means the need to re-evaluate beliefs, attitudes and redefine the required competences. We ask questions about the sense and effectiveness of the actions taken and the methods by which we carry out these actions. The roles of CEOs, leaders, managers and L&D departments have been completely redefined. Despite a recognition of the importance of employee development in organisation, research on what contributes to employee development is still nascent (Nielsen et al., 2017). The aim of this article is to analyse the direction and extent of changes in the approach of organizations in Poland to employee development that have occurred as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. The conducted research was of a qualitative nature. Thematic exploration was used to analyses the findings of 19 in-depth interviews with experienced HR managers. The research shows that businesses have approached training and development during the pandemic in different ways. In some companies, the development area has completely ceased to exist due to layoffs, reduced budgets and the termination of contracts with trainers. Yet, other organizations are investing in remote tools and forms of employee development, starting a time of an unprecedented rapid development of the digital transformation in HRD (Kniffin et al., 2020; McGuire et al., 2021). In some cases the gamification has become increasingly common in employee training (Armstrong and Landers, 2018). There is also another direction of actions in organizations – maintaining the existing development plans. This situation is experienced by companies that have not yet been affected by the crisis; in some cases, new opportunities and even better prospects have emerged. So, what does an individual need to adapt to this new reality? Above all, one must develop and nurture flexibility and courage in light of unexpected events. According to Thomas Friedman, an American journalist and publicist, curiosity and passion are currently the most important components of development processes in the world. Employers who support workplace education and training programs enjoy a more conscientious, resourceful, loyal and dependable workforce (Goldglantz, 2013). The important goal of this study is to show the impact of situational context on modifications in development activities undertaken in organizations and in particular, to describe how companies have modified HRD activities under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. For learning and development (L&D) practitioners, there are implications in relation to tailoring developmental offerings to fit the needs of employees to help them to progress more in the course of their work. In this new and unpredictable reality, an agile approach to employee development seems to work much better.

 

Background

Employee development in organizations Human capital is nowadays perceived as a valuable and desirable good, which, when properly applied, stimulates the growth of the company’s market value and, in the long run, proves to be much more important than the possession and use of material resources and financial capital (Tharenou et al., 2007; Nadiv et al., 2017; Somogyi, 2020). According to Mayo (2000) employee development, including the continuing generation and exchange of knowledge and experience, is concluded to be the key driver of value growth in any kind of organization. Training should have specific goals which are in one of these three categories: increasing the personal effectiveness of employees (such as competence improvement); increasing the added value being achieved currently (such as the use of new systems and better methodologies); generating future value (e.g. developing the expertise and potential of people). Professional development can be understood as broadening the knowledge and skills necessary for the proper performance of tasks in a current position while developing additional competences in terms of promotion, transfer to another position or organizational change. Professional development is used to achieve a strictly planned goal over a certain period of time, requiring adequate preparation for career planning while assisting in an employee’s personal development. Very often, activities outside of work permeate indirectly the professional sphere and thus enrich the employee’s competences with new knowledge, skills and experience, not necessarily directly related to the job, but perhaps at some point helpful in its performance (Cerasoli et al., 2018; Skule, 2004; Spaan et al., 2016). It is extremely difficult to analyse professional development in isolation from personal development, as these are processes that run in parallel, intertwine and influence each other at some point in life (Noe et al., 2014). It is worth to emphasize that HRD interventions can positively contribute to organization’s innovation activities. HRD is also found to positively influence employee engagement, leadership, manager’s motivation to learn, the promotion of a learning culture and social capital development (Sheehan et al., 2014). Emerging Employee development technologies in particular are playing a key role in helping to find innovative ways of helping people of all ages to develop knowledge and skills (Mulvie, 2021) and become almost the only available option to guarantee the employee development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology trends will become even more important in 2021 and beyond. They will decide not only about the competitive advantage but also about survival – professional and organizational to be or not to be. Professional career development Professional development, in a narrower sense, is defined, inter alia, as a process used to create opportunities to develop the professional interests and abilities of employees (Matthews et al., 2004, p. 168), which eventually should lead to the expansion of their knowledge and skills in a specific area. This is defined in more detail by Sutherland and Canwell (2004, pp. 181-182), pointing to five basic functions of professional development: (1) expanding knowledge – helpful in problematic situations, especially in conceptual work; (2) learning from experience – gaining practical knowledge by observing oneself and other employees and implementing new solutions to one’s work; (3) developing new attitudes and beliefs – changes in views, system of values, rules and standards of conduct; (4) possibility of rebuilding professional qualifications – individual competences of an employee, their diagnosis and improvement to a higher level; and (5) cooperation and contribution to the development of personnel–sharing skills and knowledge, using knowledge of other employees, mutual learning and action (coaching, mentoring, peer tutoring, etc.). From a management perspective, professional development is usually defined as the development of an employee within an organization according to the needs of the organization and the results, capabilities and preferences of the employees (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020). This understanding of the term puts great emphasis on looking at professional development from two perspectives of the organization: employer’s and employee’s. First, the development of an employee is stimulated by the organization in which he or she works. It sets requirements, expectations, enforcing behavioral changes and acquisition of new skills and knowledge. An important developmental impulse is the feedback from the professional environment, both positive and negative, which influences the learning process. Also, any changes inside and outside the organization make it necessary to adapt to new conditions, shaping the relevant competences. On the other hand, the employee feels the need for professional development, which results from his/her ambitions, motivations and interests. Therefore, one of the objectives of an effectively operating organization should be a balanced and coherent way of supporting the development of its employees’ competences. Competence is understood here as knowledge, skills, attitudes, abilities, styles of action, personality, principles, interests and other characteristics which, when used and developed in the work process, lead to results that are in line with the strategic goals of the organization (Mourão and Fernandes, 2020). Lifelong learning culture Nowadays the opportunities for development and education are greater than ever before. It is easier to find knowledge, catalogue and collect data or information. Thanks to the wide reach of the Internet, vast knowledge is open to us. What we need to work on today in particular is maintaining internal motivation to use these diverse and developing knowledge EJTD resources in the workplace on a daily basis. Lifelong learning is becoming more important than formal education (Maheshwari and Vohra, 2018). Employers know that and use modern development methods and tools increasingly often to attract and retain the greatest talents in the organization. The current concept of a career forces companies to provide employees with an always accessible development environment, allowing them to quickly build, develop and transform skills, often on their own terms. Organizations that largely base success on human capital should remember to systematically invest in expanding knowledge and facilitating the acquisition of new skills by its employees. The business environment is constantly changing, technology is developing dynamically, therefore, an employee who is supposed to be professionally effective should constantly update his or her knowledge, broaden competences and have a chance to develop the potential inherent in it (Britz, 2018), also during the pandemic (Cormier et al., 2020). Some recent research finding suggest that developing a lifelong learning mindset in employees enhances both objective and subjective career success (Drewery et al., 2020) and what more, the employee professional development increases job satisfaction and reduces turnover (Glazer et al., 2019). It should be emphasised that now is the time for scholars to acknowledge an expanded domain of development activities, and integrate employee-driven development into traditional development theory (Dachner et al., 2019).

 

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