Career Development? 3 Things to Do Before the Holidays!

2010 is the year that Career Development programs changed from a "nice to have" to a "need to have". In earlier recessions, Career Development was the low-cost supplement to total compensation for those employees who were running as fast as they could into their career. Not this time. I don't think the value of Career Development will be elbowed out again by compensation even when pay levels start coming back.

The reason we have been working so hard on Career Development this year? Because it matters. Research has proven it. Employees get excited when they have a chance to learn and grow. They like to come to work. They create new ideas, work harder and day dream about the things they will contribute to the company as their career advances. And they talk about how satisfying the new opportunities are. They actually tell you they are engaged in their work.

So before you are totally overwhelmed by closing the books on compensation and benefits, consider a few action items that will close the books on Career Development for 2010. Items that will demonstrate that your company is serious enough about Career Development that it treats it as strategically and systematically as other aspects of Total Rewards.

1. Don't overlook Career Development in next year's Total Rewards statement. I know it can be hard to turn these practices into dollars and cents, but there are suggestions out there on how to do it based on measures like hours worked. Besides, do you really need to monetize development efforts -- especially since it is an investment that has even more of a future value than a current value? Instead, explain how your Company puts a value on the time spent in career development -- or, better yet, ask employees to describe the value they have garnered from it this year. You can design your statement to feature this narrative or include it on a cover email/letter that goes along with the statement. If you can, follow up on the Intranet and Tweet on it.
2. Analyze business needs for 2011. Which departments or professions will be staffing up? What are the strategic needs -- specific skills, particular areas of experience, certain levels of competencies? Determine whether your current program enables managers to identify these areas of potential in current employees. If not, make alterations that will help employees understand how to build on capabilities that are currently valuable and transferrable.
3. Audit 2011 development plans. Determine whether this annual assignment is being done effectively, with completed forms that address details like plans for growth assignments and stretch projects. If you are not seeing that level of attention to the development plans in a company where a Career Development Program has been promoted to employees, determine a counter attack. Don't let managers' lack of time or understanding undermine the credibility of a program that employees have pinned their hopes on. Managers will have more time in the beginning of the year. What kind of help can they use?

Career development? Employees and managers are watching closely to see if you really mean it. If you can tackle these three priorities, you will make your intentions clear. And if you've got other suggestions, please pass them along!

Margaret O'Hanlon is founder and principal of re:Think Consulting.  She has decades of experience teaming up with clients to ensure great Human Resource ideas deliver valuable business results.  Margaret brings deep expertise in total rewards communication to the dialog at the Café; before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal in Total Rewards Communications with Towers Perrin.  Margaret earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University.  Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.

Comments

[Laura Schroeder]

I love the idea of monetizing or at least highlighting development on the TRS!