8 steps to support your employees’ personal development
As humans, we’re always looking to grow. No one wants to feel stuck. The same goes for your employees — they want to feel like they’re making progress while working with you. If that’s missing, they’ll start looking elsewhere.
So, how can you support employees’ personal development and keep them engaged for the long haul?
Why support employees’ personal development?
Personal development covers everything from leadership training to building on existing strengths. It can focus on personal passions or professional growth.
Employees often develop skills like communication, decision-making, or teamwork—all of which contribute to better outcomes across your organisation.
What are the types of personal development?
You can do many things to help with employees’ personal development. These can be divided into categories:
- Formal learning: This covers external courses, diplomas, qualifications, and conferences.
- Work-based learning: Employees can shadow colleagues, take on new responsibilities, or lead internal projects.
- Self-directed learning: This includes reading books, researching online, or studying independently.
- Professional activities: Mentoring, industry networking, or participating in workplace training sessions.
What are the benefits of personal development?
When you support employees’ personal development, you’re strengthening your business. Research shows that employees with access to self-development are 15% more engaged.
It boosts performance, raises productivity, and builds motivation. It also helps your team adapt to changes more easily. You’ll see higher employee retention and internal mobility, which saves on hiring and onboarding costs. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that replacing an employee can cost up to 50–60% of their annual salary.
Further reading: Why is personal development important in the workplace?
How can you support your employees’ personal development?
Developing your employees can be done in a variety of ways. Here are eight practical steps to help you build an effective employee development plan:
- Set goals
Start with clear goals. What do your employees want to achieve, and what does your organisation need? Build goals that balance personal interests with role expectations. Break them into monthly, quarterly, and yearly targets so everyone knows the timeline.
- Get personal(ised)
It’s the 21st century. Nothing is one-size-fits-all anymore, and nor should it be! Since the top reason personal development plans fail is a lack of individual ownership, it’s clear you need to shape the programme needs around each employee.
Involving your workforce in their own plans lets you immediately be ahead of the curve. If you want to take it further, platforms like Thrive use information gained from cultural surveys and personality assessments to determine the best ways individuals in your organisation learn and their skill gaps, allowing you to support their development in the best way possible..
- Invest time
It’s not enough to make a plan—you need to give your team time to follow through. Allocate around 10% of their working hours to focus on personal development. A small budget can also help with buying materials, joining a course, or gaining a qualification.
Further reading: How to create an Employee Development Plan (EDP)
- Promote a culture of learning
Your team already has a wealth of knowledge. Sharing is key. Encourage things like lunch-and-learns, peer presentations, or a shared space online where people can post new ideas and resources. Let people learn from each other and bring fresh thinking into everyday work.
- Focus on feedback
Personal growth involves improving how you already work. That’s where constructive feedback comes in. A Zenger/Folkman study found that employees who receive strengths-based feedback are more likely to be engaged.
Create an open, supportive environment where feedback is part of everyday conversations, not just saved for quarterly check-ins. If someone spots a way to improve, they should feel comfortable speaking up. After all, the goal is to keep getting better — and that’s what real growth is all about.
- Go beyond work
If you treat personal development as purely work-related, you’ll miss its full potential. Encourage activities beyond career goals, as they often build valuable transferable skills. For example, if an employee volunteers on weekends, support them in sharing it with the team or organising a volunteer day.
Even job-related skills can benefit them outside of work. When you approach personal growth with a whole-life perspective, employees are more likely to engage and see the true value of your programme.
- Incorporate growth into catch-ups
If your workplace holds regular catch-ups or 1-2-1s, include personal development goals in those conversations. It keeps employees on track, shows your commitment to their growth, and encourages them to take it seriously. More importantly, it gives you a chance to offer support early if someone’s struggling.
- Start a mentorship programme
Mentorship can benefit both junior staff and future leaders. It encourages learning, supports better relationships, and helps knowledge move through your teams more naturally. A good mentoring programme adds value across your organisation.
Empowering employee development with smart tools for business growth
At Thrive, we help businesses support employees’ personal development with tools that are quick to set up, easy to use, and packed with insight. In just 12 minutes, you can uncover team strengths, spot skill gaps, and shape development plans that actually work. Our platform offers customisable hiring assessments and performance tools. Let’s give you the tools to hire smarter and grow your team with confidence.
Want to see how it works? Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it.
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