Career development is often a hot topic when it comes to employees. After all, this is how staff are able to enhance their skills and abilities and prepare for future roles or promotions. Some of the best organizations strive to provide quality career development to their staff member. It is estimated that losing an employee can cost 150 to 200% of the employee’s salary. Implementing career and talent development strategies can help retain talent and save costs in the long run. In this blog post, we share 6 ways you can support your staff with their career development.

Career Conversations

It is critical that you actively approach professional development with staff members by periodically discussing it during meetings between managers and those they supervise. These one-on-one conversations are great ways to assess career goals, how they fit with the organization’s objectives, and how the organization can help an employee develop the necessary skills to meet those goals. 

Organizations can take this a bit further by creating personalized professional development plans for staff members. The plan will set stepwise goals for them to pursue as they strengthen specific knowledge and skills. This is a great way to keep employees engaged as well. 

Mentorship

One of the most successful programs for career development is mentoring. There have been many studies that have found benefits from this practice. Mentoring can be done by connecting an experienced professional with individuals or groups of mentees. 

The goal of mentoring is for staff to gain insights and lessons through conversations with their mentor. Mentors do not even need to be in the organization. Mentorship relationships are typically seen as creating a stronger bond between employees and the company. It helps improve the quality of work life.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship can be viewed as a bit similar to mentorship with an exception. It typically occurs when an experienced person in the same field as an employee speaks on their behalf. It can even happen when the person is not in the room. The goal here is to support their career advancement. 

Sponsorship can be an effective practice because it helps organizations to stay centered on advocating for the development needs of all employees. Thus, it is a good way to ensure that internal talent development remains a priority even during particularly busy times when it may be tempting to let it slide.

Career Coaching

A career coach is someone who supports a staff member’s professional development by helping them develop a more strategic approach to setting and implementing their career goals. The individual or the organization typically pays for these services. Many organizations will hire career coaching for all employees or those of a certain level. 

You can think of career coaching as a particularly intense and structured form of career conversation. It is also a very powerful tool to provide to employees. In fact, providing career coaching to employees can lead to increases in productivity and more engagement in an organization.

Short-term Assignment or Secondment

These terms refer to a temporary transfer of an employee to a different role or department. The goal here is to help the employee increase their awareness of the new area as well as to expose them to new work opportunities. This is typically done in consultation with the employee based on their individual career goals and interests. 

Short-term assignments and secondments are particularly useful in helping employees better understand the scope of work and skills needed to accomplish a different role. This can greatly help with self-assessment as employees develop plans to upskill their abilities in order to be able to accomplish a different role.

Career Development Workshops

Finally, career development workshops supporting learning on specific topics can be a great way to help your employees engage in their career development. Organizations are often best suited to identify topics that are of interest to a large cross-section of employees to maximize their investment. 

Popular career development workshops involve topics like effective leadership, working with diverse teams, communication, and other things that can typically be widely applicable. Of course, organizations can also assess resources in their areas and connect staff with them to support more individualized goals.

Final Thoughts

Career development is not only an essential aspect of employee growth, but it can provide many benefits for companies as well. Those who do it well will have an easier time attracting talent, reducing turnover, and increasing employee engagement. Creating a company culture that values career development can be started simply by having intentional conversations with staff.