Creating a Professional Development Upskilling Program for HR Professionals
Written by Kevin George, MBA
HRBP
Hello HR Professionals! One of the most important aspects of our positions is People Development. Let’s say you would like to start a program to help your employees do so. Where do you start? I recently created a, new and improved from previous version, program for my employees. Below are some best practices and steps that will help you in starting your own People Development Program.
Identify Need
This is the tricky part. Not everyone will tell you that they need training on how to develop their professional skills. Why? Because most don’t know. I will bet that everyone you come in contact with today, tomorrow, in previous jobs, and in future jobs can benefit from professional upskilling. Everyone can benefit!
So, how do you identify the need? Observation. As you get further along in it becomes increasingly easy to identify needs. When you interview candidates and build relationships with managers and a client group, uncovering these needs becomes second nature. I suggest you solicit feedback from any internal interviews, review resumes, and ask employees what they are doing to prepare for the next step in their career.
Select Demographic
Very few workshops are “one size fits all.” Professional Development workshops have to be tailored to their audience. For instance, employees who are fresh out of college have different experiences, skillsets, and knowledge than those who have held management or even executive level positions for many years. Make sure when developing a program, the language and content are geared towards the correct demographic to make the largest impact.
Create Program
So, you’ve done all the prework. Congrats! Now is when the fun begins. A bit daunting, huh? Don’t let it be. I suggest starting off with creating a framework of what you want to accomplish.
For my most recent project, I knew I wanted to start from the application process and proceed all the way through to after interviews to develop my people. So, I wrote out my framework then changed it several times. That’s ok! I ended up with: Resume Writing, Additional Presentation Documents, LinkedIn, and Interviewing. Once this is complete, how do you want to convey the information? With a group? One-on-one? Through a learning platform? These decisions are key in moving forward.
The next step is the most important. After the structure and presentation have been completed…GET OTHER HR COLLEAGUES’ AND SUBEJCT MATTER EXPERT’S FEEDBACK! Everyone looks at things differently. You may know what information you want to convey, but it may not be clear to others. To get the greatest understanding from the largest group of attendees, first get feedback from a wide range of people.
Deliver
Now is the fun part. It’s time to deliver what you have. If you are not comfortable with presenting in front of groups (in-person or virtually), practice then practice, and practice some more. It may help to have one or more people watch your presentation before launching to help you build a smoother presentation.
