Don,
I'm not sure how you define "professional development" either, but I took a
stab at it, assuming you mean non-job/functional skills?
>Why should you encourage your employees to participate in professional
>development?
At the organizational level, employees need to keep their skills up to
date to continually learn and grow with the organization. "Professional
Development" typically includes the most transferrable and long-lasting
skills such as communications. From an employee's perspective,
professional development is part of career development and helps sustain
the organization in the long-run (unlike HTML skills which are critical
for short-term goals).
>What are the consequences of not using professional development?
Ultimately, lack of innovation, "corporate amnesia" from losing
experienced staff who fail to see the bigger picture and keep skills up to
date, lack of benchstrength and succession planning or future leaders to
name a few.
>What are the best sources of professional development - how should it be
>conducted?
I agree with Jessica's comments that the best approach is to offer many
options from which people can choose. I'm a believer in people learning
so-called "soft skills" by experiencing them through new assignments,
challenges and mistakes. Planned experiences and assignments with good
mentoring and coaching, in my view, are far more powerful than any
classroom or media training for most people.
Hope this helps.
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