How to help your people commit to their careers
After all that talk of ‘quiet quitting’ last year, you could be forgiven for thinking that in-house career development is an investment that’s not worth making. But, according to LinkedIn, you would be wrong.
With the cost of living crisis in full swing and the promise of recession looming over us all, your people are more likely to be doubling down on their current careers than plotting to jump ship. This doesn’t signal a lack of ambition, it simply reflects the realisation that, more than ever, we need to make the most of the careers we can’t live without.
In this climate, the development opportunities we offer our employees couldn’t be in sharper focus. Our budgets are as tight as ever, but the demands of our employees to grow their careers with us have rarely been higher; LinkedIn found that a whopping 74% of people were looking for ways to develop new skills, while 56% of people have already taken positive steps to develop in their current job by taking on additional responsibilities and projects.
So, how do you meet this opportunity head on and give your employees the chance to realise their potential? Here are a few of our thoughts:
- Take stock
What does career development look like in your organisation? What opportunities do people have? How do they get access to them and, probably most importantly, do they know about them?
Whether your L&D curriculum is a weighty tome or your development cupboards are relatively bare, making sure people know where to go to get skilled up is an obvious but crucial starting point. Avoid the temptation to commission more and get to grips with what already works because training courses are only part of the picture…
- Create connection
Career development is all about knowledge; knowing what you are good at, what your options are, where you want to go and the best way to get there.
Training courses are great for plugging specific skills gaps or to help people gain more self-awareness but career progression only really begins when we actively engage with the people who work in our chosen or aspiring profession. If you make it easier for people to share, shadow and search for opportunities within your organisation, career development seems more achievable and - importantly for us in HR - people will take more ownership of their own journey.
- Create clarity
We cannot and should not be responsible for other people’s careers and we absolutely can’t promise progression. What we can and should do is make the milestones as clear as possible. If people can see what skills they need to develop or responsibilities they need to take on in order to progress, then it makes it far easier for them to take charge of themselves.
Encouraging gaining a breadth of experience, rather than only celebrating upward career trajectory is also important; showing people how this works in practice will make it feel worthwhile.
- Be strong
So often ‘career development’ is used as shorthand for ‘promotion please’. We shouldn’t shy away from discussions that remind people that their job isn’t everything. It may seem counterproductive, but helping people to identify their strengths and transferable skills and encouraging them to look beyond their task lists and job title, will give them more confidence and increase their sense of self-worth.
The benefits for employers is a happier, more intrinsically motivated workforce. One full of people who go the extra mile because they want to, rather than playing for promotion. This is where real career satisfaction is made.
Further reading:
‘After quiet quitting and rage applying, 2023’s work trend will be career committing’, Stylist.
‘Brits are recession proofing by career committing’, Huffpost
‘How to help any employee to grow’, Harvard Business Publishing
‘10 ways managers can support employee career growth’, Forbes
