5 Key Trends in Staff Development

In recent years, US organizations have spent roughly $1,200 per employee on staff development and training. This translates to $87.6 billion. Providing training and development improves staff performance, increases employee job satisfaction, and can address a plethora of company needs that might include issues related to compliance, technology usage, workplace efficiency, and more. Companies invariably have specific needs to address regarding staff development and training, but it can also prove valuable to take a look at some staff development trends that could impact your business or organization.

1. Emphasis on Coaching

In recent years, mentoring programs were a popular trend embraced by businesses and organizations. In coming years, expect to hear a greater emphasis on ‘coaching’ as a preferred method for staff development. In order for management or senior staff to effectively coach employees, they’ll need the training to develop their own coaching skills.

The goal of coaching is to help employees succeed and achieve specific goals. To that end, coaches must learn effective strategies for encouraging employees, measuring their improvement, and assessing their performance. As your managerial team develops improved coaching abilities, employees stand to benefit from this trending workplace paradigm.  

2. Anti-Harassment Training

To protect themselves from liability, companies, virtually across the board, have sexual harassment policies in place. However, the mere policy does not appear to be enough to stamp out sexual harassment in the workplace. In a recent survey, NPR reported that “81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.”

Companies who are committed to creating a safe workplace are tasked to determine where the disconnect lies between the paper policy and the behaviors of employees. Inspired by the #MeToo movement, organizations are moving to provide anti-harassment training that outlines illegal forms of harassment and high-risk behaviors that should be avoided in the workplace.   

3. Addressing Gender Bias

The #MeToo movement has also inspired organizations to address the disparities that still exist between men and women in the workplace. In order to promote equality in the workplace, companies are working to remove any signs of gender bias that may exist in its policies, procedures, recruitment practices, promoting practices, etc. To be more effective at performing tasks like writing gender-neutral job descriptions or to address workplace gender issues affecting the business, training is warranted–and it’s certainly a top trend for today’s businesses and organizations.

4. Leadership Development

It’s a classic, but leadership development still ranks highly as a staff training and development trend. Employees want to understand how to fulfill their ambitions, how to earn promotion into leadership roles, and how to master the skills they need to be effective leaders. Today’s most sought-after leaders are able to understand diversity and its importance in the workplace, navigate the digital landscape with decision-making in mind, engage employees, and foster collaboration. Organizations are offering this type of training at a pace that shows no signs of slowing down.

5. Technical Skills

At the rate technology changes, your staff at all levels can likely benefit from some technical training. This is a broad topic, of course. Staff development sessions could be devoted to your company’s specific software platform, performing data analysis, managing social media posts, using online support tools, and so forth. In this digital age, employees need on-going support to effectively use new forms of technology that can help them do their job. Technology appears to have its place well-cemented in organizations’ yearly staff development and training offerings.

It’s important for your organization to reflect on these training and staff development trends because there’s a good chance that your employees are. Staff training is important to employees who frequently view it as an employee benefit. Offering a program of relevant staff development offerings can help your organization improve your employees’ skill sets and may even increase your ability to retain them.

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