HR Essay Example: Employee Development at 3M

Why is development significant at 3M?

Development is essential to 3M as it helps to push for growth and innovation. They have a great value system and common belief that a committed and robust workforce will ensure the company keeps growing. According to the 3M website, the company values are; drive innovation and growth, think from outside, develop and teach others, lead with energy, make courageous decisions, passion and urgency, and live 3M values. Employees become innovative through training, encouragement to come up with ideas and allowing people to do what they feel. This makes them grow to become strong leaders. By placing value on development, 3M has created strong employees who can make good decisions and be able to play any role in the company.

How does 3M develop employees?

The succession plan at 3M encourages every employee to work towards being an administrator at the company. 3M has adopted different ways of employee development by providing diverse opportunities for its employees. 3M uses its executives to train employees. This is done by enabling them build strong relationships with the leaders who involve them in action planning. Action planning includes handing small projects to employees, giving them the freedom to create their success and giving them the chance to present their findings on different projects. The company has dedicated a lot of hours in a month for succession planning sessions and appraisals. They offer coaching and collect feedback from the employees. Major decisions are made inclusive of employee input as part of their training process. They are encouraged to become innovative, and mistakes are tolerated to build them even better.

3M also gives job training to employees and offers equal opportunities to its personnel to build themselves by developing customized training packages for each niche. The company only focuses on jobs that are related to the achievement of company goals directly. Management roles are also aligned with the elements of the company's strategy, and 3M avoids diluting the process.

The company also scouts for talent among its employees through the Human Capital Planning program. This includes aligning strategy with KSA, leveraging talent, and internal development. This enables it to align employee skills with the company goals and objectives. It also involves balancing internal company development and outside hiring to push for diversity as a business value. 3M identifies, develops and retains high performers as a critical strategy in its succession plans. Comprehensive employee reviews are done regularly to identify the right people with different skills for promotion and growth.

In addition what else is important for employee development?

Motivation for the employees: 3M creates a model-up avenue for its upper management to lead by example. Executive sponsoring is where the administration is part of the employee growth process by offering mentoring sessions for employees in conjunction with working with them. This creates a relationship between the employees and management where the latter shows its personnel that they care and make them feel supported.

Aligning employee skills to the company goals: To set the company in the right direction the organization needs to find the right people, place them in the right direction, and lead them to success. Not compromising on the quality of staff in an organization will not only enable great employees to be chosen or top positions but also grows the company by leaps and bounds.

References

Seeing forward: succession planning at 3M. 30 January 2017. Retrieved from: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XLNpp49bCvs Accessed 28/11/2017

3m.com. (2017). 3M Global Gateway. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.3m.com Accessed 28 Nov. 2017