Full utilization and retention of human resources is one the most strategic areas that companies need to improve. This will include providing employees a clear picture of rewarding career paths that can be built within the corporation or within an operating unit. Can employees see career progression of current successful employees in the enterprise and then connect the dots to see how these examples apply to them? Are they then afforded the encouragement, career planning and skills building activities to grow their careers?
I have developed a unique and innovative approach of building career roadmaps within an enterprise or a profession group that will fully engage participants. The first step is to identify 20 – 30 successful professionals currently within the job area. The pool should be diverse representing a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and routes to their current positions. Participants create one page career maps that highlight their job progression and very importantly, the skills their built with their various roles. (Or I could create the maps from resumes and interviews with participants.)
The second step is for me in my consultant role to analyze and “data mine” the collected maps for 5-7 key career development themes which can be packaged and presented to employees or professionals within a job area. Overall career development concepts can then be added to the presentation to provide a foundation, concepts such as:
• The importance of each individual taking ownership of their careers and taking the time to assess their own strengths and ambitions
• Combining both short term and long term career planning
• Making job decisions analytically instead of emotionally
• The importance of engaging a good set of diverse mentors
An additional step can then be taken. All the skills developed by the road map participants over their careers can then be groups into categories, and then learning activities identified for the skill groups for professionals to add into the career development plans.
I will continue to expand on some of the concepts within this blog in future entries.