Does Your Organization Have Enough Career Agility?

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agilityThe findings from Randstad’s 2012 Employment Survey provide some illuminating and up to the minute insight into the reasons that today’s employees are  leaving their jobs. The survey revealed that approximately 86% of employees that are leaving jobs are doing so as a result of a lack of career development.

Combine this finding with what we already know which is that candidate confidence has returned — with employee resignations being 7% higher this year — and we can see that career development is rising irresistibly up the corporate agenda.

So, the story is that candidate confidence is back and employees career development expectations are rising. The Career Engagement Group 2012 Career Agility and Engagement report has given some insight on what these expectations look like and it revealed three key findings

  • 31% of employees want to accelerate or fast-track their careers
  • 35% of employees want more work responsibility
  • 75% say they’re willing to use their own time to further their career and take on additional learning that would benefit them at work.

Career Agility

The big takeaway from these findings is that in this age of talent shortages and an increasingly mobile workforce, employees are looking not just for career development support, they are becoming increasingly self determining and are looking forCareer Agility, that is they want to be empowered to be able to identify the best methods of reaching their career aims.

If organizations want to attract and retain top talent they must tune into the post recession spirit and start building agile career development processes which empower employees to shape their own career development paths.

So how can organizations offer Career Agility?

This does not have to be expensive and the four areas that you should prioritize are:

1. Build a development road map for staff to follow

Develop a competency framework which is kind of a road map so employees can see what skills they need to develop in order to progress up the career ladder within the business.

2. Make DIY Resources Available

Offer career support resources which include DIY/self service career review tools so self determining employees can review their career and understand their strengths, weaknesses and development needs.

3. Provide access to coaches/mentors

Establish an internal mentoring program within the organization and allow employees to access this and select a mentor as they need them. This is a great reason to adopt a diversity based hiring strategy as you will attract workers from all different backgrounds, particularly older workers who can make excellent mentors.

If your firm does not have enough internal mentors then you can tap into an external mentoring network – and you should be aware that many mentors provide their service for free.

4. Make a DIY Career Toolkit Available

This should be a a resource that employees can access which explains the career pathways within the businesses, along with learning opportunities, project opportunities, job vacancies and secondments and which also details how to access mentoring networks.

Developing Career Agility within your organization does not have to be an expensive exercise, it’s much more about restructuring your career development processes to make them more accessible to employees and in a much more empowering and self determining way.

By Kazim Ladimeji