OP6 Develop people’s skills for your business

Why this is important

Helping people to improve their skills will help your business to increase productivity, improve the quality of the service or products you offer and support the continuing development of your business.

Who might do this

You might do this if you need to:

• make your business or social enterprise more productive;
• improve the quality of the product or service of your business or social enterprise; or
• make changes to staff roles in order to develop and/or expand your business or social enterprise.

What it involves

Develop people’s skills involves:

• deciding on the people development needs for your business;
• planning and setting targets for people development;
• making arrangements for people development to be done inside or outside your business; and
• monitoring progress.

Other units that link closely with this

Links to other standards

If your business grows and develops a management team it may be appropriate to consider the following units from the Management and Leadership Standards.

1. Carry out a regular review of people development needs in line with business aims and priorities.
2. Gather information about people development needs and use it to make fair and appropriate decisions.
3. Agree the development needs of all people in your business, through appraisal or discussion.
4. Analyse the skills needed and the order in which they need to be learned.
5. Agree learning goals and an action plan with each person.
6. Choose a method of training, mentoring or coaching which meets each person’s individual learning needs.
7. Identify the resources needed to develop people’s skills.
8. Train, coach or mentor people when appropriate, altering approach in the light of feedback or progress.
9. Where people cannot be trained in your business, identify appropriate alternative training opportunities to suit individual needs.
10. Give people opportunities to practice their skills, apply their knowledge and get experience in a structured way.
11. Recognise and reward success.
12. Identify anything that prevents learning, and review this with the people concerned.
13. Regularly check that people are making progress towards learning goals and give positive feedback where possible.
14. Seek guidance from specialists when necessary.
15. Keep accurate, confidential and up to date records of development needs and plans.
16. Check that the outcomes of training and development are benefiting your business.

Developing staff

1. What technical skills and experience people need to make the product or provide the service.
2. How to get the information you need about development needs of individuals. (For example appraisal and performance review reports, business plans and feedback from people).
3. How to decide which skills people need to develop.
4. How to set and agree targets for development with people.
5. How to write an action plan and agree learning goals.
6. What training you can provide in your business. (For example on the job training, short courses, mentoring or coaching).
7. What training may need to be provided by other means. (For example training provided in your business by an expert or a short course run elsewhere).
8. What resources are needed for people development. (For example time, training programmes, fees and substitute staff.)
9. What kinds of development opportunities are available. (For example learning on the job, books, websites, fixed courses, tailored programmes to meet business needs, mentoring or coaching.)
10. Where to find information about training courses and events. (For example from business advice centres, trade associations and colleges.)
11. What government support might be available for small businesses. (For example training grants, free course provision or fee remission.)
12. How to check individual staff understanding and progress.
13. How to check that the staff development you provide is helping your business to improve.

Training, mentoring and coaching

14. How to identify learning opportunities and match them to individual needs and objectives.
15. What types of learning are best supported either through training, mentoring or coaching.
16. How to identify the opportunities available to people to apply their learning.
17. How to put learners at their ease.
18. What the different learning styles are and how they affect learning.
19. How to select appropriate resources and materials and structure learning activities.
20. How to encourage people to recognise their own achievements.
21. How to recognise things that are likely to prevent learning from taking place and how to overcome them.
22. How to analyse and use developments in learning, including new ways of delivery such as technology-based learning.

Motivating individuals

23. How to motivate individuals by recognising and rewarding success. (For example praise, recognition in front of colleagues, rewards, benefits, pay rises.)

Laws and regulations

24. How to make sure that everyone acts in line with health, safety and environmental protection legislation and best practice.