How can leaders get started taking advantage of strengths? Get to know your snow employees. 

This article covers what company leaders can do to help employees satisfy a basic human need: to learn and grow. And that process can help you organically grow your company. When employees can learn and grow at work, a company maintains momentum and motivation. Without this, employees rarely stay excited about the job and are more likely to underperform, make errors or leave.

Gallup research shows that when organizations provide opportunities to learn and grow, they realize 39% less absenteeism, 36% fewer safety incidents and 14% higher productivity. Imagine how that would look in your day-to-day work. Now, how do you make it happen?

Start with strengths

One of the best ways to get the most out of people is to build on their strengths – their talents, skills and knowledge. Basically, the things they naturally do well that make them feel energized. Discovering and utilizing people's strengths unlocks massive results.

Too often, management focuses only on improving weaknesses. While you need to correct errors, focusing only on what's wrong is the wrong approach. The best way to overcome weaknesses is by using your strengths.

How can leaders get started taking advantage of strengths? Get to know your employees. During manager/employee 1:1s, do an opening icebreaker where you ask questions like:

• What tasks in your role do you feel most confident doing?
• What part of your workday feels easiest or most natural?
• What kinds of problems do other crew members come to you for help with?
• If we had a difficult property or customer issue, what role would you want to play?
• What tasks and projects do you enjoy so much that it doesn't really feel like work?

When you're asking these questions, you're listening for technical skills, soft skills and engagement (what makes them come alive).

Another way you can discover employees' strengths is through assessments. DISC and Clifton Strengths are two assessments that I prefer. If you're using an assessment, review and apply the results consistently. Talk about them at your morning huddles, team meetings and 1:1s. A great question to ask is, "Based on your strengths, what is one thing you will start, stop or continue doing on the job?"

Now that you know your employees' strengths, you can maximize them by providing opportunities for professional development.

Professional development

Gallup research shows that a lack of development and career growth is the No. 1 reason employees leave a job.

Career development can take many forms such as promotions, moving laterally to a new position, learning a skill, achieving a credential or growing your skills to thrive in your current role. The best companies do this on an ongoing basis, and make it stick by having their managers follow up with employees to discuss what they learned and how they'll apply it on the job. Seventy percent of adult learning occurs on the job, so applying what you learn is key. 

Opportunities you can build into your company include:

• Job shadowing. Have employees spend part of a day with an employee in a different role to see what they do and how it makes a difference for the company.
• Onsite training. Conduct five-minute trainings on relevant topics as part of your morning huddles. Schedule more regular in-depth training. I also suggest a monthly "lunch and learn."
• Independent learning. Encourage employees to learn independently through industry publications and podcasts. Allow employees time to attend webinars and online trainings.
• Conferences and events. Send team members to conferences and events, both to learn and to build relationships with other industry pros.
• Career paths. For employees to see a future with your company, they need to see a career path and what's needed to get to the next role. Establish these pathways, including the trainings and budget required to support them.

When building your company into a preferred workplace, I encourage you to take this in small bites with consistent improvement and feedback. Try one of the strategies from these articles, ask for feedback, measure the results and adjust. As you get one in place, add another. Before you know it, your company will be a preferred place to work! 

Evan Tachoir is the founder of Jack of All People Trades, HR/People Consulting to help snow companies recruit, develop and retain the best employees. He leads the monthly networking/teaching series NET Gain. Email him at evan@jackofallpeopletrades.com.