Your team is a big reason your business runs smoothly (or not). By developing your employees, you have people who care and actively contribute to your business at a high level. Whatโs difficult is knowing how to cultivate your employeesโ skills effectively so they can work independently and help your company grow.
Step 1: Hire for development in mind
You need to hire for potential when interviewing candidates. Not every role can be filled and performed immediately; it takes time for an employee to get used to the role, no matter how qualified they are. When hiring staff, look for qualities such as collaboration, ability to learn quickly, independence, motivation, and strong communication skills.
Traits like these give you a great foundation to build from. This can also apply to existing staff members of your business. Once they are part of your organisation, you can cultivate their talents.
Step 2: Developing talent
To develop staff effectively, you need to take a number of actionable steps to round them out as contributors to your business.
On-job training
Training staff will require some hand-holding at first โ whether it’s yourself or a senior staff member showing them the ropes. Also include an introduction to the parts of the business to give them a feel for the overall business. After an introduction and a pairing activity with other staff, gradually give your new staff member more autonomy.
Delegate tasks
Delegating is a vital skill for every business owner and manager. You need to trust that your staff can function without you, because you canโt always be available for day-to-day operations. This is where you give your staff members more autonomy over a task and the responsibility to complete it without your input unless prompted. Greater responsibilities help the staff member become more confident in their abilities and contribute more, which lets you trust them to work independently.
Coaching and upskilling
As your staff become more confident in their role, you can supercharge their development by coaching and upskilling them. To get the ball rolling, schedule monthly meetings or one-on-ones to identify their goals and career aspirations. Once these are identified, you can develop a plan to improve by taking on more responsibility, pursuing higher education, or taking online courses. Getting to know what your employee wants out of work can help you find motivators for them, but you also might find that their plans align with your own goals as a business owner.
Communication and feedback
Communication and feedback about your employeesโ progress/work can be addressed in your one-on-ones, but it is also good practice to normalise discussions on what went well and what can be improved. Encourage all your employees to provide feedback. This creates a collaborative environment where everyone can contribute and grow together.
Step 3: Incentives and productivity
Developing your employees’ skills should also be accompanied by incentives that improve productivity and motivation. If you treat your employees well, they are more likely to work harder for you. Compensation is also a great way to retain staff and reduce employee turnover.
Small business-friendly monetary incentives
You can keep staff around in a number of ways, but the most common is through monetary incentives.
Performance-based compensation
Providing quarterly or year-end performance-based bonuses and compensation is a common way for businesses to show appreciation for employees’ hard work. Make sure to tie bonuses to clearly defined metrics for your staff, whether sales-based, project-based, or client feedback-based.
Profit sharing
Profit-sharing is an option that some businesses provide to key staff members or senior employees who are essential to their operations. Profit-sharing is tied to the business’s overall performance, so it incentivises your best employees to be productive.
Campaign/project incentives
These are one-off incentives that can be tied to a specific campaign, project, or a critical period in the year. This is a token of appreciation for employees who step up when the moment arises.
Small business-friendly non-monetary incentives
Incentives donโt always have to be monetary. You can improve productivity by adding non-monetary benefits.
Flexible work arrangements
Offering work-from-home or remote work (where applicable) options is a great way to help staff maintain a better work-life balance. Work-life balance is more important than ever for workers and can be the deciding factor in whether to accept a job.
Develoment
Development, education, and upskilling benefit you and your staff. This is an investment in your business, as your staff improve their skillset and pursue their goals, while their contributions have a greater impact.
Workplace benefits
Other workplace benefits can include free lunches, gym memberships, and extracurricular activities (such as sports or team-building events). Creating a workplace that fosters company culture, social, or health benefits is a valuable perk and is always appreciated.
Employee Development Procedure
Having a dedicated staff development playbook should be part of your operations. Create simple cards to easily track each worker’s progress. For instance, here is something you could implement in your staffโs development:
Employee development card example
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Employee Name | David |
| Role | Sales Assistant |
| Start Date | 10 Nov 2025 |
| Manager / Coach | Marty |
| Strengths | David is responsible, a good communicator, and is always looking to improve current systems. |
| Development Focus | Independent decision making & opening and closing sales |
| On-the-job Development | Paired with Marty for coaching and shadowing; exposure to customer sales conversations, POS, sales reporting, basic stock and operations |
| Ownership & autonomy | Trial upsell prompts with customers. Give one process improvement each month |
| Independence Level | Semiโindependent (support on request) |
| coaching & Upskilling | Monthly one-on-ones focused on sales confidence, skill progression, and career direction |
| Skills to Build | Closing techniques and prioritising |
| Feedback | Going well. Strong customer communication; receptive to feedback |
| Notes | Needs development: Acting without doubleโchecking; focusing on highestโimpact changes |
| Retention & Incentives | Potential performanceโbased sales bonuses; clear development pathway; ongoing coaching |
| Current Contribution Level | Contributing |
| Potential | Top Performer |
| Next Review Date | Apr 2026 |
Fostering talent in your business
Spotting talent is important when hiring, but itโs only the first step. You need to develop talent and find ways to retain top-performing employees so your business can flourish. Identify the qualities you want, build on them, and increase productivity through incentives. By doing this, you give employees a sense of pride in their work and become top performers in your business.
