As most businesses approach the end of their fourth fiscal quarter, employees prepare for annual performance reviews with their managers. Review season is often a time of angst, and even if you’ve technically hit your goals for the year, there’s often a sense—whether it comes from employees or their managers—that you could be doing more.
Management teams are now refocusing their efforts to create better performance evaluations. In fact, a recent Deloitte study shows that 79 percent of executives rate the redesign of performance management as a high priority, up from 71 percent three years ago. And a new area that many management teams are now adding to their tally of metrics is skills development and training.
Fortunately, adding skills training as a tangible performance metric is a strategy that has positive implications for both businesses and employees. As you soldier through this year’s performance reviews, here are a few tips to keep in mind and share with your manager for the next review cycle.
Employers Are Increasingly Open to Skills Training
According to the CareerBuilder Hiring Forecast 2018 survey, 66 percent of employers plan to train and hire workers who may not have all the skills they need but show potential to excel. It’s getting harder for managers to hire now for the skills they’ll need in two to three years, given the rapid advancement and adoption of new technologies that change the way companies are building products and conducting more efficient operations. So, they turn to skills training and ongoing career development of existing employees to keep the workforce optimized for digital and technological advancements.
Employees Can Take Charge of Their Careers
While many employers are taking the lead to incorporate skills training and certification into their HR programs, employees should still take the opportunity to raise the issue with management. A Pew Research study reports that almost three out of every four adults agree that individuals are responsible for making sure that the workforce has the right skills and education to be successful in today’s economy, and that self-directed learning is driving the need for new credentialing systems.
Many of today’s skills training programs result in prized certifications that not only verify critical new skillsets but also provide measurable proof of business goal alignment.