Virtually every company says it values career development. Yet one of the most common reasons for turnover is a lack of development opportunities. If development is so important, why does it seem to be in such scarce supply?
One reason is many companies actually do things that discourage people from engaging in development activities.
You can tell a lot about how much a company values development by looking at the criteria used to guide compensation and promotion decisions.
For example:
- Are managers and employees rewarded for investing time in building long-term talent?
- Or, is it all about last quarter’s business results?
The following are examples of ways companies actually punish employees, managers, and human resources leaders for investing time toward development.