They may not be the ones to tell you, but employees want more from their jobs. Often that satisfaction isn’t limited to the job position but more on developing the skills necessary to contribute more to their team and expand their skillset within the industry. We have an answer for that—a thriving culture of professional development. 

For Simplus, the real ROI on hiring, retaining, and rewarding our valued employees isn’t limited to filling job positions. Instead, its focus rests on developing those skills that ensure job success, professional growth in the industry (not just Simplus), and encourage work habits that support work culture.

Here are four reasons why Simplus benefits from having a professional development culture. 

1. Supports employee career development 

The Salesforce ecosystem offers a rich and unique environment for professional growth, and we support that culture by instituting ongoing, event-driven, collaborative experiences coupled with roundtable learning opportunities.  

What professional development efforts do at Simplus is leverage our internal team members’ expertise to share with others, adjust the curriculum to the needs of the employees, and continuously monitor and adjust the available learning tools. The goal is to be an organization that continuously expands our existing culture of learning by empowering employees with the tools they need to move up within the corporate ranks and move out into the industry with an expanded skill set. 

2. Aligns staff and company for future success

Professional development faces a unique challenge in our work environment: Our culture is a remote work culture. Therefore we continually face the need to define and support a cohesive work environment and constantly question how we can better align ourselves for future success within a globally-based workforce.

We believe the answer is to develop unique training opportunities and illustrate the value those activities contribute to their professional growth. We’ve found success in expanding peoples’ ideas of what training can do for them and making sure it consistently aligns with future goals, especially for new hires, and sharing that message early and often. 

Communication with other departments is key, especially when you operate within a remote work culture. We work hard to form a symbiotic relationship to make sure teams are aligned skill-wise with what the opportunities and selling points are in the future. For instance, one of our partners won’t share leads until we’ve earned a certain number of certifications. Our job is to track how many certifications we have within the company so we can expand that relationship and increase sales. 

3. Retain valued employees

At Simplus, we ask a lot of our people, and with that comes the need for some give and take. Our employees are here because they choose to be. We want them to know they’ve made the right choice by investing in strategic work competencies that will help them feel confident in their job performance.  

A lot of our professionals are already committed to their own learning, but to know the company shares that commitment builds loyalty and employee satisfaction. We want to be opportunistic about when teams get together and ask how we can inject learning opportunities into dedicated collaborative events and incorporate learning into the business flow. This is all part of creating a professional development culture that challenges engaged employees and ensures their efforts feel worthwhile. 

4. Expand leadership work culture

We’ve found the best approach for connection is personal. Despite the fact we have employees stationed all over the globe, our goal is to elevate this company person by person and team by team. We connect with each other by teaching each other. And by practicing purposeful connection, we expand the scope of what leadership means. At Simplus, “leadership” applies everywhere and in different ways. It’s not necessarily limited to direct reports. Instead, we apply these skills to leading an event, a process, tools, etc. 

A collaborative culture already exists here at Simplus, and we take time to explore best practices in the professional development ecosystem. What does it look like? We’ve found that the best professional development programs enjoy a corporate culture that is supported by employees’ consistent willingness to help out and dive in. That’s the foundation for a robust community of learning, growing, and expanding abilities and skillsets. 

At Simplus, we’ve seen the benefits of developing strong leadership skills at every level and through different avenues of learning. And we believe a focused professional development culture is the vehicle to help your company’s culture and potential growth drive toward an exciting and positive direction.