With over 30 000 touch points with career starters per year, and having placed some of the hottest talent in the market, we would like to share how some of the best employers are developing future leaders.

Good leaders know how important it is to focus on growing and developing their employees. Ensuring employees are supported and invested in, demonstrates that a leader is focused on what is best for the business by developing the strengths of the people around them. This is even more important when your employee is just getting started!

If training and development just aren’t a priority, you could be missing out! By developing your employees you will be able to delegate more work, increase your talent pool, be recognised as a leader and get promoted, and enjoy the personal satisfaction of getting the most out of your team.

Win-win. Now here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Set Goals
   Work with your employees to set realistic and attainable goals. Setting goals is a great way to help your employees focus on what they would like to achieve. By beginning with an end in mind, you will both have a better understanding of what are the necessary steps to get there. The most important thing to remember is that goals can’t be arbitrary; they must be Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Keep your superstar accountable!
2. Coach
   Coaching is becoming more recognised as a necessary and important part of employee growth and development. Coaches give employees a safe place to vent, learn new skills and develop skills they already posses, gain insight into themselves and their work, feel supported, encourage fresh thinking, gather advice and suggestions. These tools enable employees to make more educated decisions, while growing and developing in their role and adding more value back to the organisations. Coaching your superstar in a weekly one-on-one is essential to tapping into their real potential.
3. Professional Development and Training
   Professional development and investment in training are especially important with Gen Y, who are massively ambitious. They appreciate an employer who will invest in up-skilling them and feel rewarded when presented with a new challenge. Ambitious employees will not be satisfied with minimal training. These are the future leaders of your organisation and you need to ensure their development and training are supported, or be prepared to lose them.
4. Network
   In today’s world, who you know is more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging your employees to expand their professional networks ensures you employ people who are comfortable gaining information, advice, support and inspiration, helping develop best practice for your organisation. Additionally, they will develop important business acumen and possible business development contacts.
5. Challenge
   If you want to develop high performers, you need to encourage your employees to step out of their comfort zones. By assigning new tasks or increasing allowance for innovation and new ideas, your employees will become more comfortable with challenge. This will ensure they grow both new skills and confidence and you’re building future leaders for your organisation.
6. Feedback
   The annual review is not something valued by a culture that has grown up with everything being instantaneous. Your employees expect no different from their managers. They expect to be told how they are doing, when they are doing it. If your employees accomplish something, recognition for the achievement is appreciated. If they have made a mistake, let them know in a constructive way and give them the opportunity to learn from the experience and correct it. Don’t wait 6 months and tell them where they went wrong at an annual review.  A good place to start is a weekly one-on-one meeting.