One of the biggest and best resources a company has with the most significant influence over whether they succeed in their industry or fail are the people hired to work in the business. A company with people who are not engaged and do not see a future with the organisation or even their department are likely to see losses. But for, companies that strive for greater growth but also offer continued opportunities for development within the organisation for their employees will discover they experience larger profit and remain competitive in a tight labour market.

How the S-Curve Model Can Improve Businesses and Careers

The great resignation caused many professionals and business leaders to groan. But it can be viewed on a positive note. The great resignation, in truth, is employees speaking out; if employers are listening, they will learn that their staff are aspiring to be more, learn more, and grow as individuals in their careers. Overall this is a great opportunity to great a more strategic business framework.

How the S-curve Model Helps Employers

By understanding where an employee is on their learning curve of a skill or role, employers are given insight into what the employee may need for continued success. To understand how the S-curve can help is first to understand the learning curve.

What is the S-curve?

The S-curve uses diagrams to illustrate how people progress with their learning of a subject or task. It has been used to project how fast a new procedure will become excepted, learned and implemented into practice as well as the expected performance. There are three major stages.

The Launch Point

is where people are first introduced to the material to learn, and their brains attempt to project where this is going. It is an exciting yet terrifying experience that comes with a sense of apprehension. As Whitney Johnson, Disruption Advisor, describes it:

 “What’s happening for us is that whenever we start something new, our brains run a predictive model. We’re making predictions of, “What will it take for me to be successful in the role, in this project, in my career?”. And at the launch point of the S, we’re making many predictions, most of which are inaccurate. And because those predictions are inaccurate, out dopamine, which is the chemical messenger of delight, it drops: and we don’t like our dopamine to drop, because then we’re de-delighted.”

The Sweet Spot 

is where things begin to fall into place, and the learner feels good about their progress. Here dopamine is on the rise. The learner feels good about themselves and where they are.

 The Mastery 

is when the learner has grasped the subject matter and can utilise the information expertly. From here, there is slow growth and less dopamine again. The learner in this place may begin to feel stagnant and restless. 

In overview, the S-curve of learning is slow growth in the beginning, then fast growth in the middle, with slow growth returning with the learning seeking new information to add to what they have already acquired.

How Employers Should Help Employees at Different Stages of the S-curve

If employees are in the launching stage, they will need the most support here. They may feel frustrated if they think they are not learning fast enough, which mentors and managers can help. But at this stage, giving learners understanding and permission for slower growth also eases the stress of learning a new task or role.

If the employee is in the sweet spot of learning, employers will want to watch that they do not lose focus and take on too many projects that could cause them to derail. 

Retention of Employees

For those in mastery, there is the potential of losing the employee to another company or opportunity. To help retain these employees, finding new challenges could keep them onboard for a longer time. But suppose new challenges cannot be found. In that case, this provides a means to an applicable separation between employee and employer where there are no hard feelings and keeps the door open to the employee boomeranging back later.

The key here is that it is about where the employee thinks they are in the learning curve, not where the manager or company believes they are, which determines what the employee needs at that time.

How Recruiters Can Identify People at the Right Stage of Their Career Path

By understanding the s-curve and the capability to support a percentage of people in those stages of the curve, employers can plan their recruitment efforts accordingly. The ideal place to be is a 20/60/20 percentage of people in these stages, depending on whether the business is a start-up company or a well establish organisation.

So for recruiters, when searching for people to fill a role, knowing where the organisation wants a potential candidate to be in on the s-curve of the job can give an idea of who to recruit for a role and how they might entice the person to come on board. 

For example, if a person of interest is in the master of one job role, offering them, growth opportunities can persuade them to join the company.

How to Take Advantage of Multiple S-curves at the Same Time

Most job roles have many factors in learning to be successful. For example, there is more to know in a sales role than just sales, and there is more to an HR role than just people management.

Each role has multiple fundamentals, and each is where an employee can be on a place in the s-curve. And there are also to be considered side projects or other ventures that require other s-curves of learning.

The best means for juggling multiple S-curves is to be at different places for each skill to be learned. Ideally, to handle more than one, you don’t want to be at the launch stage of every one of those. Preferably you would want to be at the launching stage of one and be at the mastery of more than one with a few sweet spots to continue the momentum. The expected means of success is less likely this way.

How You Can Help Others by Understanding Where You Stand in the S-Curve 

Human Resources professionals have finally been given an opportunity to be heard, but they need to take the initiative. A quick assessment can let you know where you stand with the nine skills we have determined to assure you provide the most value to your organisation.

Understanding where you stand on the S-curve of learning to become a more data-driven, business-focused, and experience-led HR gives you the chance to not only lead by example but to offer support for those who are at the launch stage, guidance for those in the sweet spot and opportunities for those that have hit the mastery stage.

Build the HR Skills of the Future with myHRfuture

The myHRfuture Academy focuses on supporting HR professionals build the skills they need to succeed in the future. It aims to help you become more data driven, business focused, and experience led – to acquire the skills necessary to process, produce and leverage digital information. Our new HR skills of the future assessment not only shows you how you stack up against the 9 skills of the future HR professional but also highlights your development opportunities, providing you with a personalised learning journey that aims to guide you every step of the way so that you can close your skill gaps, deepen your knowledge and Press PLAY on your Career.