Two-thirds of millennials, the largest generation in the US workforce, cite career development as a key part of company culture. This belief is stronger than with other generations and could impact your appeal as a company to them. So, how do you ensure you empower your workforce’s career planning and development to increase retention?
This article will run through some of the basics of these steps to help you understand what you might need to do to introduce it to your business.
What Is Career Development
This is an internal process by which you work with your team to ensure they have a clear professional path. This will encompass both hard soft skills, as well as concise goals to help them achieve milestones in the company.
With most workplaces, it is likely to enable exploring different options and focuses in a career. This can ensure you have a highly-trained and competent workforce over time, as well as one that is motivated to continue working with you.
Setting Clear Career Development Goals
Talk to your team members and ask them to document all of their aspirations in their careers. Also, work with them to draft a skills map that outlines both personal and team-wide strengths and areas of improvement.
When creating goals, ensure they are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
This will help you create a set of steps for someone to take, as well as track their progress through them. If you find these goals are too large, try to break them down into more manageable steps, to enable you to see a direct impact in the short term.
Drafting a Career Development Plan
Once you have the above set of goals, organize them so you can incorporate them into your regular workflow. Ensure any specific actions are either related to the work they are doing anyway. If you cannot, you may need to find a way for the team member to complete them alongside their normal role.
As you finish the process of career development planning, you should have a set of long and short-term objectives for the worker. You can then use these in any 1:1 or progress discussion in the future, meaning they have business value from their conception onwards.
The Best Career Development Tools
There are several online learning platforms and career mapping tools that can help you to plot out an employee’s skill path. These can visualize their progress and may even offer gamification to encourage faster learning.
If someone is looking to focus on a specific technical skill, another option is to search for mentoring or coaching programs. Finding certifications such as these IT service management courses can help to boost a worker’s ability in specific areas. They can also give people credentials that will allow them to prove their ability to future managers in your organization.
Career Planning and Development Strategies
With the above advice, you should have everything you need to start the process of career planning and development for your employees. Of course, there is always more to learn, and building a successful business is a journey with many facets. We are happy to help you learn them.
Our site has many articles related to different areas of modern workplace culture and practices. So, for valuable insights, check out our blog today.