How do we prepare employees for the future, support their learning, and build a growth culture in the organization? We spent the whole morning discussing these and other questions with 60 HR professionals and searching together for new, different solutions to today’s challenges. Below, you can see what our special guest shared with us and what the most interesting new ideas from the workshop were.
Jelena Šribar: Let’s be a role model for development
We opened the event with a talk by Jelena Šribar, a psychologist with 20 years of experience in HR, more than 13 of those in the role of HR Director in various industries.
At the beginning Jelena emphasized that development is something natural for people – we learn and grow throughout our entire lives. She dispelled common myths that employee development programs are mainly a cost with limited value, or that the responsibility for successful employee development lies primarily with the company or external training providers. She stressed that employees themselves must also take responsibility for their development: actively seeking learning opportunities and engaging in development activities with commitment.
Today, Jelena Šribar leads People & Culture for the EECA, MENA and Africa regions at CWB.
She went on to highlight that today development is no longer limited to formal classroom training. A large part of learning happens through everyday work and social learning: coaching, mentoring, networking, reading, listening to podcasts, attending conferences, job shadowing, job swap, participating in projects. »Today, development is accessible to everyone,« she emphasized, pointing out that most of these activities can be free – they mainly require our time and focus.
Jelena also addressed employees’ readiness for future job requirements (so-called »future fit«) and warned that past experience and current knowledge may not be enough for success in the workplace tomorrow. In this context, she naturally touched on the topic of using artificial intelligence in employee development, making it very clear where responsibility lies: AI should only be used where it is safe, brings real added value, does not conflict with values, ethics or regulation, and is always used with maximum transparency.
Jelena Šribar reminded us that our willingness for continuous learning and development is more important than the skills and knowledge we already have.
In closing, she summed up that development is a shared responsibility: individuals should actively seek feedback and learning opportunities; managers should systematically develop their team members and lead by example by showing they are also learning; and the organization should build a culture of growth – among other things through strong internal training programs.
An incredibly creative workshop: from 230 challenges to 467 ideas
After the opening talk we rolled up our sleeves and tackled as many as eight challenges in the field of employee development. Nina Pozderec and Jaka Kladnik from Switch to Eleven made sure the workshop experience was top-notch. Under their expert guidance we searched for innovative ideas to tackle the following challenges:
- How to develop competencies for digital transformation?
- How to identify talents and key employees?
- How to motivate employees to take on leadership roles?
- How to develop leadership in “first-time managers”?
- How to develop employees who are not meeting their targets?
- How to manage individual development plans?
- How to measure the effects of employee development?
- How to develop all employees?
Participants had the opportunity to look for solutions to their own specific, current challenges they are facing in their everyday work.
230 specific challenges in 5 minutes
In the first step, we broke the challenges down in detail. In just 5 minutes we wrote down 230 specific questions, dilemmas and obstacles HR professionals face today in these areas of employee development.
Participants had the opportunity to look for solutions to their own specific, current challenges they are facing in their everyday work.
467 idej v 10 minutah
In the next step, we generated ideas on how to address specific aspects of the challenges. In only 10 minutes, the group came up with 467 ideas.
Some of the more interesting proposals were, for example:
Exchange of managers between companies (for the challenge How to motivate employees to take on leadership roles?)
Employees teaching other employees from the same or another department (How to develop all employees?)
A talk-show format where employees “pitch” their practical case studies (How to develop competencies for digital transformation?)
»Leader for a month« – a rotational opportunity for high-potential employees (How to motivate employees to take on leadership roles?)
An internal learning/development competition (How to develop all employees?)
In the absence of the manager, the potential successor temporarily takes over their role so we can see how they perform in practice (How to motivate employees to take on leadership roles?)
The option of an »honourable withdrawal« if someone realizes a leadership role is not a good fit for them (How to motivate employees to take on leadership roles?)
Working in groups not only led to a better understanding of the challenges but also to a structured search for new HR practices that can be tested in the company.
From idea to first steps
From all the ideas, each group selected the most promising ones and defined them in more detail:
what exactly is needed for implementation,
which obstacles can be expected,
and what the first steps after the event could be.
In the final part, each group presented their solution in the form of an »idea gallery«. This gave everyone the chance to explore and comment on the ideas of others. The following ideas and solutions attracted the most interest:
- a »license to lead«,
- a competency model for developing AI competencies,
- an onboarding program for professionals in their first leadership position.
Representatives of the groups then explained these ideas in more detail and answered questions.
How do we bake a good leader?
The event once again confirmed that employee development is not just an HR topic, but a responsibility shared by everyone – individuals, leaders and the organization as a whole. Participants did not only take home inspiration, but also very pragmatic ideas they can start implementingrightaway: from new approaches to onboarding and developing leaders to reflections on which competencies their employees will need tomorrow.
And we will continue to create opportunities for similar exchanges of knowledge and best practices in the future – so that the development of employees and leaders in our organizations can increasingly be guided by a clear, well-thought-out and, above all, achievable plan.
