Employees have a vision for their
At Health-E Commerce, an online retailer for FSA- and HSA-related products and services, professional development is approached from many angles, including employee feedback,
"Professional development is important for us because we want to grow, retain and invest in our employees," says Jenna Everhart, Health-E Commerce's SVP of human resources. "The more we invest and develop their skills, the more successful they will be, and in turn, the more successful our company will be."
This outlook can make all the difference in attracting and retaining talent: In an employee survey from career development and outplacement company INTOO, 59% of respondents said their company rarely or never helps them pursue opportunities beyond their department, nearly half said their manager wasn't capable of assisting with development and 44% felt their company doesn't care about their career growth. Because of this, a quarter of respondents — and a higher number among Gen Z — said they planned to quit in the next six months.
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Communication fuels growth
At Health-E Commerce, gauging where employees are in regard to engagement and job satisfaction is a way to get development conversations started. The company sends out Gallup's Q12 engagement survey along with customized questions, and the feedback drives programs that meet employees' current needs, Everhart says. In recent years, feedback has inspired the rollout of professional growth roadmaps and a toolkit for all workers, which includes a wide variety of resources to help them navigate their current job and ways to excel.
Performance reviews — both from leaders and self-assessments — also open the door for ways to improve employees' experience. The company has partnered with people management platform Lattice, which has areas for employee notes, leader feedback, goal-setting and more, to make communication more widespread and consistent.
"You can request feedback from literally anyone in the company, and [it makes] that feedback more organic and frequent and candid," Everhart says. "We just rolled out the performance management part in the fall for the new reviews, and then we just rolled out a bunch of the other modules this month. We're encouraging people that, 'Hey, you're going to write a self review in a couple of months, so start using this to take notes. Start documenting the one-on-ones you're having,' and we built out questions for those one-on-ones [to help managers get started]."
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But development is not just about where employees are going; it's about making sure they're feeling successful in their current role, as well. Employees are asked to give feedback about their current role — what they like, what they don't, and what they need — which then gives their manager an idea of any stress points, boredom, lack of understanding, and how to approach any changes that may help.
"We've used tools like EOS (entrepreneurial operating system) — there's a tool within that that's actually called delegate and elevate, it's a four-box grid, and one quadrant is, 'I love it and I'm great at it.' One is, 'I like it, I'm good at it.' One is, 'I don't like it, but I'm good at it.' And the other one is, 'I don't like it, I'm not good at it.' I use it with my team to understand what they are working on, and where it falls within those quadrants. A lot of times, people get stuck in that 'I don't like it, but I'm good at it.'"
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Building confidence, encouraging initiative
So that they can be a leader their team can rely on — and feel supported themselves — much focus is put on manager training. The company provides one-on-one coaching, boot camps and other types of training for its people managers throughout the year, which helps them confront everything from day-to-day tasks to career development conversations with their team members with confidence, says Everhart.
By looking for ways to create growth opportunities and fostering strong relationships between managers and their teams, Health-E Commerce lets its employees know that their professional future is top of mind. Everhart stresses that this, in turn, creates an environment where they feel good advocating for growth and demonstrating their value — not just waiting to be tapped by a leader for something new.
"You have to seek out those different projects or tasks," she says. "Look around the corner and say, 'I see an opportunity here for us to fine-tune this process. I think there's a lot of inefficiencies here, and if we do X, Y and Z, we can make it better.' Take ownership of your role, your department and your own development."
