How do you manage employee career growth?

I think it is critical to provide employees with opportunities, be it interesting work, leadership opportunities, interesting and worthwhile programmes etc - but ultimately it will be to them and their life stage as to how they proceed with these.

Individual Development Plans (IDPs): Work with each employee to create a customized Individual Development Plan that outlines their short-term and long-term career goals, along with the steps needed to achieve them. These plans can include training, projects, and skill-building opportunities. Succession Planning: Identify potential successors for key roles within the organization and provide them with the necessary development opportunities to prepare for these roles. Mentoring and Coaching: Encourage mentoring relationships within your organization. Seasoned employees can provide valuable guidance and support to those looking to advance their careers. You might also consider offering coaching or external mentors.

Every organization should have a clear career road map to support the growth and development of their employees. The Managers should aid employees to build Personal development plans and yearly goals. Set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. This will help in identifying areas where skills and knowledge are lacking and need development. Encourage employees to learn new skills, undertake added responsibilities and build their personal brand while growing their network. Monitor progress through regular 1-2-1 performance conversations and make adjustment in response to significant changes. In doing so, organizations demonstrate their commitment to fostering success within their workforce.

By understanding the current and future capabilities of your employees, you can make informed decisions about career paths, training and development initiatives, succession planning, and overall talent management strategies. Utilizing these assessment tools and methods, you can gain a holistic understanding of your talent pool. It also enables you to align individual aspirations with organizational goals, create personalized individual development plans, and make informed decisions regarding promotions, lateral moves, or succession planning.

I believe the most important part of creating career paths and plans is by involving the employees. It all starts from them and not from pre-defined structures. Once, the organization informs/shares with its employees what are its values and strategic vision then it is up to the employee to manage his/her own development. Of course there should be a mentor acting as a point of support for the employee but I strongly believe that if the employee has not the "continuous learning" mindset everything will be difficult and the career management process can be considered as a failure.

1. Establish a Development Culture: Foster a work environment that encourages continuous growth. 2. Set Clear Expectations: Clearly define performance expectations & career progression. 3. Regular Performance Feedback: Provide ongoing feedback to employees regarding their performance, strengths for improvement. 4. Individual Development Plans (IDPs): Collaboratively create IDPs with each employee to identify their career aspirations areas. 5. Training and Development Opportunities: Offer a variety of training programs, workshops, seminars, and online courses to enhance employees' knowledge and skills. 6. Job Rotation& Cross-Functional Projects: Encourage employees to explore different roles and departments within the organization.

Based on your organizational structure, identify the possible career paths within your company. This can include vertical advancement within a specific role or function or lateral moves to gain cross-functional experience. Define the skills, competencies, and experiences needed to progress through each level. This provides clarity and structure for employees to understand the steps involved in their career progression. Clearly communicate the available career paths and the associated expectations and requirements to your employees. Provide them with information on the skills and experiences needed to progress in their chosen career path. This helps employees understand the opportunities available and sets their expectations for advancement.

In my experience, being very careful to not overpromise career destinations, paths, or timelines to employees at the beginning of their employment is critical. It takes time to assess talent, uncover motivation, gauge collaborative/communication skills, and set realistic goals for individuals. It’s also important to map out a realistic timeline and communicate that it is subject to change, based on company position, economic factors, and budgetary constraints.

First we need to start with a self assessment by analyzing he workforce to identify the skills and experience sets present across different departments. And understanding future needs to analyze the organization's future goals and the evolving skills required to achieve them.

Examples would include; leadership development training, project management workshops or technical skill enhancement programs. Sponsor employees to attend external courses or certifications. Offer tuition reimbursement or support employees in pursuing advanced degrees. Establish mentoring programs where experienced employees can guide and support junior colleagues. Arrange opportunities for employees to shadow professionals in different roles or departments. Encourage employees to participate in projects that involve collaboration with colleagues from other functions. Offer stretch assignments that go beyond employees' current job responsibilities. Foster a culture of continuous learning to create opportunities for peer-to-peer development.

Providing opportunities to learn and grow is essential to developing your talented people. Having clear Personal Development Plans are a great starting point so people can take accountability and be clear on the steps needed to move themselves forward. Coaching and mentoring are also excellent methods to support and challenge people.

I strongly agree with everything here. Organizations should put the all the tools for the employee development and emphasize the importance of continuous learning because from this process they can always improve themselves and in the same time contribute in the big picture of the company.

Often it isn't possible to offer a career path for every employee in your organization. Or the career path may not align with specific expectations or timelines. Ideally, a manager and employee can be supportive and transparent with each other. At best this can result in: 1. a manager having a cross-trained team to pick up the additional work during a transition when someone leaves; 2. an employee ensuring a positive reference with the knowledge they explored all available options before deciding to move on to a new opportunity.

Organisations should provide appropriate support to employees to enable them to develop their careers including access to: learning & development opportunities, mentoring and sponsorship programmes, feedback and performance management activities, qualification support, career frameworks and pathways etc but at the end of the day employees need to own their own career and development and seek out opportunities that might benefit them and their career goals. Employees who wait for their employer to deliver career opportunities might be waiting a long time.

??Leaders also should practise to let go of an employee who might be her/his most valuable asset, when there is an opportunity for the employee to grow out of his role. ??Providing opportunities to your top talent by means of cross attachments, special projects or a critical development program ,helps you to grow leaders who will shape your organisation in the future. ??Hence rising above your short term goals is beneficial for the larger good of the organisation.

The way I understand Career Growth is a tri-party partnership between the employer, direct manager and the company. If the company launches a Model-Coach-Care program that encourages or measures managers performance on coaching their team members for growth and success to achieve the next level position, then that’s an effective program. The employee’s performance does matter but will not necessarily lead to career growth if not supported by leadership and the company. #careergrowth #performancematters

While companies can provide plans, programs, and processes to facilitate career growth- at the end of the day, career development belongs to each individual. Managers play a critical role in supporting and engaging as well, but it truly lies with each person and their own unique journey.

We are at an inflection point where organizations can understand intended and unintended consequences of how we channel certain groups into certain roles and professions with workforce analytics. Furthermore, a spotlight on early P&L roles and responsibilities become really critical in terms of future advancement. Are we paying attention to who are getting these opportunities (and any bias patterns )? In addition, you cannot underestimate your internal culture of sponsorship and advocacy (vs solely one’s own sheer motivation) to make certain assignments , lateral moves and opportunities happen. There are many aspects of career development that organizations should be paying attention to