People development during work hours or in off time

Submitted by sherzing on Monday May 11th, 2015 3:11 pm
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Hi Everyone,
I'm manger in a software company and together with a colleague of mine we are discussion the best approch on how to develop our directs.

We both think the a normal approach would be that our directs to become for effective in their day to day work and with this carve out some time to learn new qualifications for their job. I also think that it would be fair to request a certain effort in the free time of the my directs to learn completely new things, like reading books on management or going through the MT podcasts to get the basics before they start doing it.

On the other hand, a common feedback I get is that the development of people should be done during office hours and not require people to spend extra time on getting more qualifications.

What is your approach to develop people? Doing it all during office hours, ask them to do it in their own time, or a mixed approach?

Thanks for your comments.

Best
Sven

Submitted by nwillis on Wednesday May 13th, 2015 6:42 am

i think a mixed approach is

i think a mixed approach is essential. Certain measurable activities like using company/CBT resources could be done in company hours if you allow half a day per month. Also company I.L.T classes, workshops could be done in company time as they could be part of O.T.J training. reading however is a very fluid activity and should be done outside work. A workshop could include reading something beforehand in your own time, then a workshop during company time.

O.T.J training and shadowing would of course need to be done during company hours.

I think the most important thing is that any training done during company hours need to be clearly defined booked as such, if only to avoid over-booking. But half a day per month is a good starting figure.