The primary objective of employee development is that all employees should have purpose, satisfaction and freedom to act. It should also foster the capability of employees to find a balance between learning, working and leisure time. Employee development can take place at three levels: at the level of the individual, at the level of the group or team and across the organization.

The traditional definition of employee development is still career development, but the flattening of organizational structures and change in corporate values opens up the possibility of other development strategies, such as job rotation, outplacement and job enrichment activities. Employee development also needs to take account of changes in the employee's own career cycle, from initial entry to the organization through promotion, 'levelling off' and pre-retirement.

Employee development is still an underdeveloped area in terms of both research and practice. Although there is no shortage of textbooks which prescribe best practice, there is still lacking a credible analytical framework which can be used by either students or practitioners. In the practitioner sphere, employee development tends to lack strategic orientation; in particular it is often not properly integrated with systems for selection, appraisal and reward of employees, neither are there systems for the objective evaluation of the success of development activities.

Martin Hilb