KEY POINTS:
People are increasingly looking for jobs that offer more than just a monthly pay packet - personal development is now a major factor in employee satisfaction.
Analysis over the past decade by JRA has found one characteristic shared by successful workplaces is their total commitment to staff development.
JRA's annual Best Places to Work survey found that 12 key drivers of employee engagement related directly to personal growth and achievement. About two-thirds of the more than 200 organisations involved in the survey identified "learning, career and development opportunities" as one of their key strategies for attracting and retaining employees.
JRA senior consultant Nicola Halliday said making full use of people's knowledge and skills helped create a sense of personal achievement. This encouraged staff to try new ways of doing things. She said offering career and personal development opportunities should be key elements of any organisation's staff development strategy.
"Our best-practice organisations go way beyond just training for the job in hand. They also look to develop people in the fullest sense of the word," she said.
"These organisations spend more on staff development, apply it to a wider range of people, and place a much greater emphasis fostering the leadership potential of all staff."
The JRA survey found a little more than half of employees from the bottom 25 per cent of Best Places to Work organisations believed they had career and development opportunities, compared with three-quarters from the top 25 per cent.
JRA is sponsoring the Great Places to Work pavilion at the New Zealand Herald Your Career Expo, to be held at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland on September 27-28. The expo will bring employers and potential employees together in the biggest careers event in the country, with a two-day series of workshops, presentations and exhibitions.
Job training and staff development are issues taken seriously at Veolia Transport Auckland - which provided more than 6.5 million journeys to passengers throughout the greater Auckland area in the past year.
Georgina Whittenham, human resources manager at Veolia, said to provide the best possible service to its passengers, it was vital Veolia staff received top quality training.
"As rail transport is a safety critical industry, Veolia's approach to staff training is very structured and undergoes continual improvement," Ms Whittenham said.
Entry-level passenger operators received two weeks of classroom training followed by two weeks on-the-job training with a tutor.
Three new purpose-built classrooms will be completed next month to house the instruction centre for new train drivers, delivered by Veolia's team of rail professionals.
"We aim to develop our staff and help them grow professionally," Ms Whittenham said.