Employee Development in Flat Organizations

m-based organizations, opportunities for promotionhe or she moves across the web.
come rarely. So how do you provide opportunities forDesign new roles. With a little creativity and flexibility,
team members to grow and develop? Follow theseorganizations can let team members design new roles.
suggestions:Share your organizations challenges with team
Enrich the job. Increase the variety of team membersmembers and ask what they have to contribute. What
tasks, and give them more control over their work.can they do to add value? You may be surprised at
Suggestion: Look both horizontally, team members canthe wealth of ideas that employees pigeonholed in
learn to operate more pieces of equipment, andlimiting jobs can come up with.
vertically, they can take on more management tasks,Assign mentors to junior employees. Mentors give less
such as planning.experienced employees the opportunity to learn from
Encourage lateral transfers. Let them build knowledgeseasoned veterans. Employees will be more
by jumping organizational boundaries. Caution:comfortable in the face of new challenges if they
Productivity may dip while team members learn newknow where to go for help. Mentors can inspire
jobs. However, the payback in motivation and bigemployees to strive for greater levels of success, help
picture understanding usually offsets such costs.them channel their ambitions, and teach them new
Develop career pathways. When team membersways of handling ongoing problems more effectively.
have no career ladder to climb, build a series ofOffer tuition reimbursement. By supporting your
pathways that radiate from your team to other teamsemployees desire to educate themselves, you will
and departments. In fields where competency comesincrease the knowledge base within your company. In
from years of experience and education, establish tiesthe long term this can make internal operations more
to other teams, inside and outside your organization.efficient, reduce the need to outsource for expertise,
Create reciprocal relationships, you train their people inand help your company stay ahead of industry and
certain areas, and they train your people. This allowsmarket trends.
team members to progress in their fields of expertise,Emphasize and encourage development. Performance
instead of having to move into management if theyappraisals and regularly scheduled reviews are perfect
want to earn bigger salaries. Suggestion: Identify levelsoccasions to set goals and discuss expectations. Ask
of knowledge and contribution in each technical area.your employees what they have learned, what new
Then identify appropriate training and experiences thatresponsibilities they have taken on, and which
can lead a worker from one level of participation toopportunities they are interested in for the future.
another. Increase pay for a specific team member as