Perfect skills development 

There is a clear path forward for every employee. All different skills an employee needs to master are grouped into distinct boxes of increasing complexity.

Let's say an eager but inexperienced seller is recruited. As of the signing of the contract, a preboarding is available as an introduction. From day one, an onboarding takes place to quickly get the person on track.

Our new employee then proceeds into the purple box that could be called fundamentals. It includes all skills needed to be a sales person that can satisfactory handle smaller deals.

Boxes, and skills mean that there are clear levels to strive for, for those who want to grow professionally, and a clear expectation from the company that employees constantly need to learn new things. Every step up to a new box doesn't have to be a step up as in becoming a manager, it could just as well be to become more advanced in a specialist role.

So far nothing weird. But now it’s starting to differ from traditional skills development.

The company should not try to control the exact order in which employees should do things within each area. Different people want to do things in a different order (and at a different speed) and are motivated more by certain things than others. In reality, it might rather look like a jumble in a certain direction.

Employees who are constantly evolving become better at what they do, stay longer, and are more motivated at work. Ambitious people can develop quickly and gain increased responsibility. Those who for some reason do not have the same drive can remain at the level they are, but at the same time cannot expect to climb upwards.

It becomes clear to everyone involved what is expected.

Do or know?

Every single skill is about something an employee needs to do, rather than something they should know. You can't get a green tick at basic presentation technique without actually doing a couple of great presentations. The goal is to learn a certain behavior, not to answer correctly on a knowledge test.

Everything a person needs to know to practice a skill must be available and neatly packaged, but it shouldn't be enough to just sift through the material.

Presentation technique could be divided into 5 different levels, where the most basic is in the first box, the next level in box number two, and so on. Employees are constantly learning in many areas and will return to build upon what they already master.