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Launching a Career Development Program in Your Organization
Implementing a career development program in a company involves much more than just hiring a few coaches to work with select groups of employees (although that's a start!). A better approach is to view this program as a new element of the organizational culture and systems. Using a multifunctional team, an analysis and evaluation of what is really needed in that organization for career development, as well as a thoughtful approach to how best to provide it, are keys to success.
Our approach at the CareerNiche Coaching Division, when working with an organization that wants to begin a career development program, is to first work with the management team in an evaluation process. We then either provide or assist with the implementation process when phase 1 is complete. Basic benchmarks would include:
A. Evaluation Phase
- Define what career development means for the organization, including the multiple points of view of various groups within the organization (e.g. management vs. employees vs. supervisors and HR).
- Determine the organization's needs for career development, whether a full-scale approach or one which simply augments what is already being done by OD or HR; can include a company-wide survey.
- Identify goals to be achieved through the program including baseline productivity loss or lost income due to low morale or bad job fit (for later evaluation of ROI).
- Design a program to fit the identified needs, including contracting or hiring coaches if need be, arranging implementation of a virtual or live career center, benchmarking job competencies, training supervisors in coaching techniques.
B. Implementation Phase
- Pilot the program with a specific team or department, evaluate results, and revise if necessary.
- Launch and promote the program to employees throughout the organization (in a planned sequence if the organization is large or has multiple locations).
- Continue to evaluate results and, if a survey was done at the beginning of the program, survey again in 6-12 months to measure results.
As the implementation is being done, both at the pilot level and at the organization-wide level, the following are some of the steps that will often be taken with each employee:
- Assessment: of skills, values, interests, and work style.
- Exploration of options: promotions, transfer and enrichment - comparing results of #1 to competencies of jobs within the organization.
- Identification and resolution of barriers: if the employee or client seems to lack education or training or have other barriers to their desired career development within the company, coaching addresses these.
- Goal setting and planning: specifying what the employee wants to achieve and helping them get there through a Career Development Plan, often working with their direct supervisor.
- Strategizing: support systems, mentoring, informational interviewing intracompany, training, available resources, and timelines.
Our Coaching Process
Our coaches utilize the Authentic VocationT process and are a proven and highly effective template to use with employees, particularly in steps 1 and 2 above.
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