During the Recession it is typical to think that concern about one’s career development is reserved for the unemployed and under-employed among us. Much of my blogging in recent months has been directed toward those cohorts. However, it is important to also focus on the individual career development needs of the 90+% of Americans who are fully employed.
Addressing career development in the context of employee inclusion in companies and organizations raises a set of different issues and benchmarks that need to be examined and rated. To look at the intersection of individual career development and the organizations within which most employees work is a task that is larger than can be adequately handled in a single blog. But it is my goal to begin such an exploration with this piece.
It is still a core belief of mine that each person is responsible for his or her own career development. So, what exactly is meant by career development, a term I’ve already used five times in this piece?
A definition depends on perspective. From an organizational viewpoint career development is seen as the procedures necessary to advance employee value to meet organizational strategic demands. From the view of a worker, career development involves the integration of cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and contextual factors that determine employment decisions, work values, and life role such that a profound satisfaction with what one does is achieved.
My primary and professional concern is with the worker who needs to cultivate the elements that comprise their professional growth. Let us begin a look at how this is done with your current employment.
There are some basics that you ought to expect from the place you work beside it being a safe place to derive an income. Perhaps the biggest is knowing that there is a built in fair meritocracy. If you as a dedicated employee have a clear and open opportunity to advance within the organization based on your talent, ability, and drive, then this place of work may have value.
Of course, most companies do have some form of internal promotion. The thing to know though, is how much of it is based on true merit vs. political maneuvering or an inadequate performance review system. In the public sector, be especially careful. My primary career was with public school systems where internal promotion is almost non-existent. There, the overriding value is egalitarianism. As great as equality is, it may not be consistent with individual ideas of progression.
Therefore, study the core operating value of your employer. Ask yourself if you can work within that system. If the clash of purposes between yourself and the organization is too much, then go elsewhere.
Finding that it is acceptable, however, means you should conduct an examination of how organizational strategy is expressed through the way they treat their employees. Acceptable contact points should be found between the organization’s definition of employee career development and your own definition.
For example, does your company institute a performance management structure that encourages managers to promote behaviors and competencies that meet both the organizational needs and your professional growth?
Other contact points that should be appraised, and which I will delve into in greater detail in future blogs, include company policies concerning onboarding, succession planning, innovation, being a learning organization, and employee freedom in how production quotas are set, among others.
In closing, I recommend first talking to your Human Resources people. Have they tried to establish an employee career development program? If they have, then they have found a link between organizational strategy and necessary knowledge and skills for the present and future.
See how your professional improvement plans fit their needs. If they match company perceived shortages, then Bingo! You may have something there. More on this later.
