6.7 Career Development
A career development plan usually includes a list of short- and long-term goals that employees have pertaining to their current and future jobs, and a planned sequence of formal and informal training and experiences needed to help them reach their goals. As this chapter has discussed, the organization can and should be instrumental in defining what types of training. Both in-house and external that can be used to help develop employees.
The difference between career development and employment development is employment development focuses on the individual’s skills, potential skills, and needs within the organization. Career development focuses on the employee’s goals, whether or not they align with the organization’s goals. Career development puts the employee’s needs first. It is a personalized plan that supports the employee’s growth for their own career path.
Think!
If an employee is invested in their own career path and may leave the company in the future, what do you think is the advantage of creating a Career Plan with this employee? Are there disadvantages?
Career Counselling
HR employees create a personalized career plan to meet the needs of the employee, and recognize some employees may work for another company in the future. The employee may move up in a promotion, or move laterally within the organization to experience different departments or work experiences. The HR staff and the employee sit down together to create a career plan. Personal development can include high performance on the job assigned, networking opportunities may be created to be a high profile employee, or mentors and coaches may be assigned to the employee to offer support, guidance and advice. Together, the HR staff and the employee develop a plan that includes:
- Identifying all the career options by looking at interests, skills, values, beliefs (perhaps through a self-assessment test)
- Prioritize the list of options
- Compare all the options (look for the best fit for the employee)
- Make a choice
- Set SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) as agreed to between the HR staff and the employee
- Take into consideration the employee’s work-life balance needs, their personality, “fit” within the company, and other important factors that are a priority for the employee
- Estimate costs of the Career Plan
- Monitor the Career Plan by checking in with the employee regularly, scheduling training to close gaps in skills, and provide feedback on progress
- Review the Career Plan at least annually
| Today’s Date | February 15, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Employee | Sammie Smith |
| Current job title | Clerk, Accounts Payable |
| Goals |
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| Estimated Costs |
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| Completion Date | Spring of 2020 |
Manager Notes:
The budget allows us to pay up to $1,000 per year for external training for all employees. Talk with Sammie about how to receive reimbursement. |
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As you can see, the employee developed goals and made suggestions on the types of training that could help her meet her goals. Based on this data, the manager suggested in-house training and external training for her to reach her goals within the organization
“Employee Development” from Human Resources Management – 2nd Ontario Edition by Elizabeth Cameron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
