Growth and Development: Keys to Psychological Health and Safety

In an industry that offers a diverse range of 400+ careers, working in BC’s tourism and hospitality sector offers many opportunities for growth and development. One of our human needs is to learn and grow.

Sheila Heen’s TEDx talk: How to Use Others’ Feedback to Learn and Grow, outlines this in relation to feedback. Growth and development are also key to creating a psychologically safe workplace. People who feel valued and respected can better manage workloads and demands when they have the right skills, are engaged and challenged in healthy ways.  

Take, for example, a young dishwasher who aspires to become an executive chef but isn’t sure how to advance their career or where to start. They may start feeling limited and frustrated in their current role and choose to leave, if they aren’t able to discuss their career goals and access growth and development support from their manager.  

As a leader, one of the best ways to retain talented employees is to seek to understand their career goals and then to provide ample opportunities for growth and development. This also helps succession planning – as your company evolves, your people can grow with you. This can come in the form of training courses/workshops, formal 1:1 career development discussions (e.g. as part of performance reviews), formal or informal mentorship, job shadowing, or cross-training to learn other positions or departments.  

Small or seasonal tourism and hospitality employers with limited positions or internal development opportunities may want to get creative and consider partnering with other small industry employers to expand opportunities for each other’s employees.

As an example, if a hotelier and local ski operator were to partner, they could provide an opportunity for an individual to work as a front desk agent at the hotel during the summer season and then move to a guest services or other position at the ski resort for the winter season. This creative approach would not only provide an employee with growth and development, but it could also build retention and loyalty with the employee (towards both employers) and help both employers meet labour needs for their busy seasons.  

Want to take steps to increase growth and development opportunities within your workplace? Are you a small business employer who wants to explore growth and development opportunities for your employees? Contact one of our People Working Well Learning Consultants today.