Your Guide to Creating a Career Development Program
The article explains how small businesses can create effective career development programs that go beyond job promotions by fostering skill-building through education and training, which not only motivates employees—89% of whom want to improve their skills for reasons like work-life balance and purpose—but also helps attract and retain talent despite budget constraints.
Each job applicant or new hire brings their own set of skills and aspirations to the workplace. Most people have goals for their careers, even if they are just starting out. Career development programs give each diverse worker a chance to thrive inside and outside the office.
Growing small businesses are constantly faced with the realities of management and hiring departments wearing many different hats. Budgets for hiring may be stretched, making the prospect of developing a career development program daunting. In order to balance your company’s goals of attracting and retaining top talent, here are some ideas to create a career development program.
Career Growth vs. Career Development
Growth describes advancement in roles along your career path, like starting out as a store associate and receiving a promotion to become a store manager. While promotions require the acquisition of skills, they may be specifically related to the jobs at hand.
Career development is a broader category that encompasses learning new skills, taking education courses, or attending seminars on more generally applied topics such as leadership or project management. The resulting skills can contribute to a promotion but they are also useful in a person’s current position. Employees can set goals for a long-range view into their career’s longevity and success.
What Is the Value of Career Development?
A recent Workspace Intelligence study found that “89 percent [of those surveyed] said they’re ‘extremely’ or ‘somewhat’ motivated to improve their skills.” The reasons cited go beyond just salary increases, recognition, or climbing the career ladder. 48 percent said they thought it could lead to improved work-life balance and 41 percent said it could contribute to their sense of purpose.
Conversely, around 65 percent of respondents said it’s “extremely” or “somewhat” likely that they would leave their employer for lack of skills and education opportunities. Without career development, their current employment felt like a dead end for job transition, career advancement, and upskilling. In the evolving job market, employees feel empowered by a focus on their personal career advancement and are actively seeking out those benefits.
Those statistics show that career development is a mutually beneficial undertaking. For employers looking to hire top talent, your career development program suggests a balance in what the candidates can offer the company and benefits the company will offer in return. A robust career development program is an acknowledgement that an individual’s career goals and aspirations are meaningful.
Supportive career development can offer timely required or optional certifications, enriching the current work environment and complying with regulations. It contributes to a positive work environment that sees employees not as a monolithic force mindlessly clocking in and out, but a living, evolving set of individuals who bring a unique perspective and skills and aspirations to their work.
Small businesses may not be able to offer the benefits of Apple and Amazon but they can fill a benefit gap by focusing on career development and upskilling. Career development doesn’t exist just to benefit the company’s bottom line. It’s ideal to craft a program that finds a balance between skills that contribute to the employee’s current job and respects their own personal goals and aspirations.
Career development is an excellent investment in employee retention. Achieving 100 percent employee retention isn’t practical or possible, but aiming for as little turnover as possible helps your company avoid costly disruptions. Career development programs rank as one of the valuable tools to boost retention.
Strategies to Create a Career Development Program
When resources are stretched, consider a combination of outsourcing and employee-led career development with some of these ideas:
Include development opportunities in job postings
It may be helpful to name specific benefits, such as tuition reimbursement or access to funds to attend industry conferences. A candidate scanning quickly may stop and take a second look when their goals align with your offerings.
Outline access to options in onboarding
Along with the necessary onboarding information about the company and work responsibilities, you could offer some time to participate in webinars over a company-provided lunch, or allow time for the employee to write out some career development goals to be discussed with supervisors. This shows you’re interested in a long-term plan to help a new employee meet their own goals.
Outsource education and training
If your company doesn’t have the resources to write and develop a set of training courses, look for reputable organizations that offer education specific to small businesses and/or your industry. Provide incentives for employees if attendance is mandatory, like meals, travel expenses, or PTO in exchange for the time spent in the meetings.
Allow employees to suggest personalized development opportunities
This program could allow employees to submit a proposal for tuition reimbursement for an evening or weekend class through a university, travel to a leadership training seminar, or a day to participate in a local service opportunity. This kind of generosity and flexibility shows you trust the individual employee to identify and pursue their career goals and that you’re willing to invest in them.
Use software tools to streamline processes
A tool like ApplicantStack allows you to quickly and easily populate job postings with career development benefits to attract top talent. You can also make notes within each person’s profile to record their stated career goals and schedule check-ins to see how the company is supporting the employee.
Identify company-wide goals
To support a company’s mission statement and core values, career development may include a company-wide training on problem solving, conflict resolution, or leadership development.
Training specific to your brand or field
Give all the employees an equal opportunity for training by an expert or a brand ambassador in your field. This can be helpful when you’ve identified company-wide areas for improvement or to train everyone on changes in the field. Observing employees’ responses to training and implementation can identify potential for internal recruitment.
Huge companies like Amazon have invested in an Upskilling Pledge, offering 300,000 employees skills training and education programs. While small businesses can’t compete on that scale, they can still offer their employees meaningful career development. In a smaller organization where it’s easier to be known and valued, the employees and the company can reap great rewards.
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