Employee or Employer? Who Really is Responsible for Career Development?

It’s a question that needs to be answered, as 94% of employees surveyed said that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development, according to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report.

Some would say it’s a two-way street; employees need to know what they want out of their career and organisations need to give employees access to a range of experiences to help them develop their skills and capabilities.

Based on my experience here are some tips on how to actively manage career development in your organisation:

1. Set clear development goals – create consistent competency-based job role profiles that will enable your managers as well as your employees to have a clear view of what it takes to be successful in each job across the organisation; using the same language to define a job will help facilitate career development discussions between the two and it will enable employees to set development goals for their next career step.
2. Create a feedback loop – put mechanisms in place so that employees and managers can have meaningful career development conversations based on the goals that have been set in tip 1; to share feedback and devise development plans that align with objectives of the team and organisation as well as the individual’s career aspirations. 
3. Capture accomplishments – provide tips and guidance to help employees think about their work in terms of numbers, examples, achievements and results; help them build their career development portfolio. Provide the tools to help them capture comments and work samples.
4. Make time to connect – provide the time and opportunity for your managers to hold structured and productive coaching conversations; managers can provide practical pointers for developing relationships, for improving personal effectiveness and knowledge, they can also connect their team members with coaching buddies.

We are all busy working and getting things done and career management can often get left behind. By following some of the tips described above employers can promote a culture and create an environment to support career development initiatives within their organisation.

What are the benefits of all this hard work and endeavour? Retention of top talent; boosted employee engagement and productivity; and a strong succession pipeline.

Find out how your organisation can develop successful career development initiatives by watching a recording of Lexonis’ webinar ‘Why Great Career Pathways Start with Fully-aligned Competencies’ hosted by Donald H Taylor and Andy Andrews.”

Register here for the recording here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5867381471626429698