The targeted development of employee competences is a central pillar of sustainable leadership success. Step 8 of the KIROI model in particular offers practical and effective impulses for managers who want to strengthen and develop their teams in a targeted manner. Building employee competences means much more than just imparting knowledge; it is about combining professional, methodological and social competences that enable sustainable performance in a coordinated manner.
Building employee expertise as a strategic management task
In practice, many managers report that challenges such as digitalisation, increasing complexity and changing market requirements require targeted skills development. Employee skills development as part of step 8 not only includes pure further training, but above all the systematic identification of skills gaps and closing these gaps through customised formats.
The IT sector is a classic example: employees in this sector must constantly adapt to new technologies, which is why pure specialist knowledge is often not enough. Companies therefore supplement theoretical training with practical project work and coaching in order to specifically promote methodological expertise. Teams in the manufacturing industry also benefit from job rotation in order to network interdisciplinary skills. The retail sector is increasingly focussing on collegial learning formats in which experiences from customer projects are jointly reflected upon.
The strategic interplay of skills development at the levels of theory, practice and individual support has a lasting impact on the success of companies and managers.
Step 8 in the KIROI model: Targeted employee competence development
The eighth step in the KIROI process focusses on holistic support that supports employee competence development. The decisive factor is the combination of different forms of expertise:
- Expertise - in-depth knowledge and sound experience in the respective specialist area
- Methodological competence - the ability to apply suitable techniques for problem solving and organisation
- Social skills - communication, teamwork and conflict resolution as the basis for productive cooperation
An example from the banking sector shows how a manager combines existing professional expertise with social skills through targeted coaching sessions and workshops with simulated customer cases. In this way, employees learn to act with empathy in critical situations and at the same time develop solutions in a structured manner.
In the service sector, the use of mastermind groups ensures that employees systematically share their knowledge and learn from each other. The method promotes self-confidence and the ability to develop further competences independently. In logistics, on the other hand, regular reflection sessions help agile teams to continuously optimise processes and strengthen individual employee potential.
The role of the manager here is primarily one of support, providing impetus and targeted feedback. This is because clients often report that this is the only way to overcome obstacles to competence development.
Best practice: practice-orientated employee competence development for a customer
BEST PRACTICE with one customer (name hidden due to NDA contract) shows how a combination of on-the-job training, e-learning and collegial feedback sessions can help to build sustainable expertise. The managers received targeted coaching to recognise individual potential and support them with suitable development opportunities. This significantly increased employees' self-organisation, which led to higher motivation and better results.
Action-oriented tips for successful employee competence development
The following steps are recommended in order to implement employee competence development in a practical manner:
- Systematically analyse skills requirements: Define important skills for the respective roles and prioritise identified gaps.
- Combine a variety of learning formats: Combine face-to-face seminars, digital learning opportunities and practical projects to address different learning needs.
- Establish coaching and mentoring: Individual support promotes self-reflection and sustainable development.
- Create a feedback culture: Managers should give constructive feedback regularly and encourage dialogue.
- Ensure knowledge transfer: Collaborative methods such as peer learning or master-mind groups strengthen joint learning.
In a pharmaceutical company, for example, the introduction of internal workshops combined with topic-specific online courses led to improved methodological expertise in quality management. This enabled employees to use new tools in a more structured way and reduce quality errors. In the IT sector, agile training formats bring teams closer together and promote personal responsibility and technical expertise in equal measure. The retail sector uses practical case studies from customer service to strengthen problem-solving skills and customer focus.
Anchoring employee competence development in everyday life
It is important to view employee competence development not as a one-off project, but as a continuous process. Managers support this process best when they create learning opportunities in everyday life and encourage employees to pursue their own development goals.
For example, short weekly feedback sessions should be firmly established in production teams in order to make development progress immediately visible. In marketing, regular creative workshops facilitate the exchange of new ideas and simultaneously promote methodological expertise. In social work, collegial case counselling not only strengthens specialist knowledge, but also social skills in dealing with clients.
My analysis
Building employee competences is an indispensable pillar of long-term management success. Step 8 in the KIROI model illustrates how professional, methodological and social skills can be developed in a targeted manner through a combination of theory, practice and individual support. Managers have the important task of moderating this process, providing impetus and creating an atmosphere conducive to learning. Practical examples from a wide range of industries show that diverse learning formats and a continuous development process are key to preparing employees for future challenges. Building employee competences is therefore not an isolated task, but an integral part of modern and resilient corporate management.
Further links from the text above:
[1] Successful skills development: 9 tips and 3 levels
[2] Methodological expertise: Why it is crucial
[3] Formats for skills development in public administration
[4] Popular methods for developing employee competences
[5] Expertise management in the company
[6] Methodological competence - definition and examples
[8] Methodological expertise explained simply with examples
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