An Employer’s “Individual Operating Manual” (IOM) For Their Employee Development

By Dr. Vic | Dec 5th, 2023 | Employee engagement, Executive recruiting, HR consulting, Management consulting, Organizational development, People management, Talent assessment, | 0 Comments

TEP goes the extra mile for human centered organizations’ employee development: It provides employers with a “road map” about how to set each new hire up for success, in an “Individual Operating Manual” (IOM).

In our last article, we talked about how employers conduct job interviews, why and how to set the right track for candidates’ fit with a company culture, and his/her future growth.

In this article, we will explain Dr. Vic’s “Individual Operating Manual” (IOM) for employee development in order to set them up for success.

Welcome to the Human Centered Age of workplace people management.

Employee development is more than training new skills

The old way of thinking about employee development, from the Industrial Age, is all about training “for employees to gain new skills and competencies”.(https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/developingemployees.aspx).

Instead of adding more skills to an employee so s/he can serve the organization better, Dr. Vic challenges you to think the other way round: organizations serve their employees’ innate gifts and intrinsic passions, by providing them with fitting roles, future paths, and by fostering a learning culture.

A job leads to a career, a career leads to self-actualization and organizational success

If there is such a thing as an absolute law, it will be that the universe keeps expanding, evolving, and growing, and so do every form of life within the universe. The same law applies to a company as well as every person working in the company.

When an individual’s career trajectory is aligned with that of the company, their synergy feeds the growth of both.

A job offering, at its best, gives someone a chance to grow with the company and grow him/herself at the same time. On the reverse side, a job, at its worst, feels like a trap and a source of unhappiness. A record high number of such work-related unhappiness was reported by this Nov. 27, 2023 Wall Street Journal article, “Why Is Everyone So Unhappy at Work Right Now?”, where feelings of lack of autonomy and loss of purpose were the reasons, among others. People first disengage, then quit.

And it all starts with the initial job interview, for the first job that needs to be filled for the company, which also offers growth potential befitting an individual’s intrinsic talent, passion, and skills.

An employer is offering employee development with each job opportunity

In today’s Human Centered Age, vetting, interviewing, and hiring take into consideration the future employee development, rather than merely using an employee to fill a position — an employer-biased, one-sided view from the old Industrial Age.

The evolution from the Industrial to Human Centered Age, from human potential’s perspective, is from disabling to enabling intrinsic human potential. From confining people to fixed roles and stagnate jobs, to setting people free, to being motivated for self actualization that brings growth to their organizations.

This is a paradigm shift. It may sound “upside down” if viewed from the Industrial Age corporate power structure, but for truly human centered organizations, “it is in every way the right side up”, said Dr. Vic, TEP.Global.

An employer’s “Individual Operating Manual” (IOM) for each new hire

The human centered hiring process is to learn about a candidate’s intrinsic motivations, passions, values, mindset and skill set, and to ascertain if there is a cultural fit with an organization.

But it should not end once the interview is done, and a hiring decision is made. We at TEP.Global go the most important extra mile: We provide employers or leadership with a “road map” about how to set each new hire up for success, in an “Individual Operating Manual” (IOM).

An IOM summarizes a candidate’s individual makeup and propensity, suggests what would be the best fit for the growth of that person that would also bring value to the organization, and how to motivate this person for the long term retention and growth, in sync with corporate brand values and culture.

Employee development is a continuous growing and learning journey

Like every human and every organization, an IOM is a living, breathing, and changing process. We at TEP.Global continue employee development, to revisit and revise the IOM “roadmap”, help people working through their developmental blocks, dealing with anxiety and self-limiting beliefs, to show up, step up, and transform themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

“Anyone can do HR, but we do people, inside out”, said Dr. Vic.

TEP.Global not only has a combined 100 years of experience and expertise in people management, talent acquisition, executive assessment, but also deep knowledge in building teams and workplace culture in organizations of all sizes. For more information and insights, please contact us.