There is a very famous Greek proverb – ‘One thing that is Constant is Change‘. This applies to real life as well as professional life. It is very important to upgrade skills and keep learning to stay ahead of the curve. Skill Upgradation is a joint responsibility of the employees and employer. The employee will have an understanding of his/her core skills and what career path he/she wants to charter in the future. On the other hand, the employer should enable an atmosphere of learning and collaboration so that employees can excel by learning from each other.
What is Career Management?
Career management is an integral process through which employees:
- Become aware of their positive traits/qualities as well as weaknesses
- Work on their long-term and short-term career goals
- Gather information about the opportunities within the team and the organization
- Develop a career plan
Employees want to maximize their careers and employers want to maximize the potential of their employees. Assigning challenging work that fits in the career path of the employees makes them more happy & productive. Continual Learning is an integral part of career management and employees have to take extra effort to shape their careers. Employers have to facilitate a positive culture for inclusive learning so that employees can start working on their career goals.
Studies indicate that happy employees contribute more to the growth of the organization. There are a lot of employees in organizations who have complementary skills which they want to utilize for the goodwill of the organization and a ‘skilled manager’ who listens to his reportees would give such employees the time & tools to sharpen those skills.
Career management is the ideal way to ensure that employee’s skills, knowledge, and experience are utilized positively.
Below are some of the major reasons why career management is more relevant in today’s hyper-competitive business environment:
- Grooming future specialists: One big mistake that many organizations make is that they fail to identify talent from within the organization. They start looking for talent from outside the organization.
Focus on career management will create a platform for employees within the organization where they can interface with business leaders and learn from specialists in a particular domain. This improves the effectiveness of the organization.
- Empowering Employees: In any organization, there would be employees who are stuck in their jobs and are looking for the next big career move. Since they are no longer enjoying their work, their productivity will also be hampered. Focus on career management will help employees to align their work with their career goals.
For example, there could be a technical developer who has leadership and entrepreneurial traits but is stuck with development work due to lack of openness within the organization. Career management is a great tool to empower employees.
- Retaining Talent: Professionals who switch organizations look at parameters apart from money when they do the same. Culture and good work environment are some of the important things that professionals look for when they change jobs. A company that gives importance to the career management of employees can retain talent since they are given a chance to showcase their skills.
There are up’s & down’s in any type of business and it is a hard time when employees are been laid-off. Organizations that have a humane touch in their business ensure that their ex-employees are given outplacement services by utilizing services of companies like ManPowerGroup who are leaders in career development & workforce management.
Irrespective of the type of business, it is always about the people involved in the business and career management & workforce management are ways in which companies can be ahead of their competitors as far as work culture is concerned.