Employee Engagement Activities

Jessica Lee wrote a compelling piece on Fistful of Talent today using the analogy of kindergarten to argue that employee engagement programs to develop workers are most effective when they're driven by the organization:

The ideal process is somewhere in the middle: Employees identify their passions, managers help them understand their strengths and weaknesses (and give them a little push every now and then), and organizations provide development opportunities that align passions with needs.

For a majority of businesses, both small and large, I think Lee is correct. However, some small firms, such as our Top Small Workplaces, have made employee-driven development not only work, but have fine-tuned both processes and the workplace's cultural identity so it is the norm rather than the exception.

Putting the cultural component to the side – because that is unique to each workplace – here are some of the practices these companies are using to engage employees to drive their own intra-company career development:

Hiring for "attitude" and "fit" provides a better starting place for individual-driven development that is in line with the organization's mission, values, and goals.
Focus on growing leaders from within vs. hiring from outside – same outcome as above.
Willingness to allow people to turn their talents to other areas of the business than those for which they were originally hired to assist. This is even more acute in a down economy, when businesses choose this as an alternative to layoffs to avoid greater recruiting and training costs.
Driven-down decision making – also known as empowering front-line employees – is often the norm when it comes to customer service, and this quality extends to employee development. 2008 Top Small Workplace Integrated Project Management is a great example of this.
Mentorship of new hires by current employees is a big component. This is a form of employee-driven development, and it is a good indicator for managers to know which mentors could handle leadership roles in the future.

Which side of the fence do you stand on here? How do your workplace team building and employee engagement activities drive people development?

Photo credit: Lacuna