Helping employees see how their career can grow and develop,
even in the smallest of organizations, takes some skill, some cre-ativity
and some courage.
EXERCISE CAREER DEVELOPMENT SKILLS DAILY
Career development is a hidden field of professional practice.
It is not necessarily covered in human resources or leadership
courses. Often, leaders and managers find themselves in career
conversations with staff armed only with personal experiences and
anecdotes to draw upon. In fact, there are a variety of proven tools,
approaches and techniques that can turn a friendly, well-intended
conversation into a meaningful alignment of personal, professional
and organizational goals.
Eighty-eight percent of executive directors indicated that they
felt unprepared to provide career development opportunities for
their staff. Since no one enjoys feeling unprepared, the tendency is
to avoid initiating career conversations at all. However, discussing
employee careers need not be a Pandora’s Box.
As a first step, managers can consider how to normalize career
conversations, so they do not feel like major milestones and instead
become part of everyday work. Consider having 10-minute “no-agenda”
check-ins with your staff. Call them or grab a coffee and
let them guide the conversation on any topic they want to focus
on. Some may start with something personal. Others may talk
about a work project or team member. Over time, regular, brief
check-ins spaced several weeks apart will ensure stronger relation-ships,
deeper mutual awareness and meaningful opportunities to
enhance engagement.
DEMONSTRATE CAREER CREATIVITY
Salary and title are easy elements to focus on when discussing
career advancement and retention strategies. Although most stud-ies
show that they alone are not enough to keep people in jobs
that lack opportunities to feel valued and growing. Often, manag-ers
feel they lack options to enhance employee engagement. The
truth is, every organization regardless of size, budget and sector
can get creative in how they help employees manage and grow in
their careers.
A study by the University of North Carolina noted that employ-ees
of all generations have the same top three basic needs that they
look to their employer to help them satisfy. They want 1) opportu-nities
to learn and develop, 2) an ability to integrate work and life,
and 3) to be treated fairly. With a little creativity all these condi-tions
can be met or exceeded.
Managers should consider what career growth means for each
individual employee. Some will value opportunities to learn a new
skill related to their job. Others may value spending a few hours
working in a different part of the organization. For some, repre-senting
the organization in public may be a great reward, while
others may prefer being assigned a research project that aligns with
this year’s goals. Note that none of these activities are costly, nor do
they require a change in title. These activities invigorate employ-ees
by exposing them to something new. They turn into retention
and career growth initiatives when managers help employees be
intentional ahead of time about what they hope to learn from the
experience; reflective during the activity to identify what they like,
don’t like and are surprised by; and future-focused in a debriefing
discussion (perhaps during the next 10-minute check-in) to iden-tify
how they can share what they’ve learned and what they want
to learn next to keep growing.
BE CAREER COURAGEOUS
Non-profit leaders know that employee turn-over is costly. In
the coming years, competition for key talent will only increase.
Leaders and managers need to know that having regular, mean-ingful
career conversations supported by ongoing opportunities to
learn and develop is the secret antidote for retention challenges. If
these types of discussions and activities aren’t already part of an
organization’s culture, it can be challenging to get started. It feels
risky with outcomes that may be uncertain.
A little bit of courage to try something new often results in sig-nificant,
immediate results. The key is to get started. n
Lisa Taylor is president of Challenge Factory and the
centreforcareerinnovation.ca.
leadership
nonwarit/123RF
HELPING EMPLOYEES SEE HOW
THEIR CAREER CAN GROW AND
DEVELOP, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST
OF ORGANIZATIONS, TAKES
SOME SKILL, SOME CREATIVITY
AND SOME COURAGE.
Regular, brief check-ins spaced several weeks apart will
ensure stronger relationships and meaningful opportunities to
enhance engagement
48 ❚ FEBRUARY 2019 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
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/centreforcareerinnovation.ca