A growing organization must concentrate on the growth of the employees because the developed employees, in turn, help the organization grow more. For surviving in the competitive market, the companies must get dedicated towards their employees. The employees play a vital role in the company’s success. It gives rise to the career development plan.
Introduction To The Career Development Plan
A career development plan is a written process that assists individuals in making strategies to boost their careers. It contains the short-term and long-term goals regarding career, experience, eligibility, and SWOT analysis. More points can get added to dive deep into the details. Creating a career development plan proves to be helpful to a certain extent, but it is optional.
Benefits Of Making A Career Development Plan
The following are the benefits of the company making a career development plan for the employees:
- Many times, the employees tend to leave the organization for their career growth. The help provided by the company for the employees with their career development plans may act as opportunities for them to stay in the same company.
- The employees can conduct their SWOT analysis with ease and find the areas for improvement. They can take charge of their career development and will not feel suppressed anymore.
- They learn to set realistic expectations, act practically, and manage time because they have an idea regarding their further challenges.
- Many employees feel that they are underrated but do not know what to do further. Thus, this plan helps them understand what they want.
- The help provided by the company to the employees in making their career development plan might improve the relationship between the employees and the company, and the employees feel appreciated.
Steps For Making A Career Development Plan For The Employees
This plan starts with the current situation of the employee and ends where the employee wants to reach. The essence of this plan lies between those two endpoints. A time and cost-efficient career development plan must get made carefully. All the employees have different backgrounds, skills, qualifications, and beliefs. Thus, the same plan will not work for two employees.
The following are the steps for the company to make the career development plan for its employees:
Step 1: Finding The Employees That Are Ready To Make The Plan
The company can conduct a survey or contact the managers of all the teams to get to the employees interested in making a career development plan for themselves. However, not all employees will get ready for it. Typically, the career development plan gets created for the employees that perform well or are in higher positions. The underperforming employees might become a part of a performance improvement plan.
Step 2: Meeting The Employees
Representatives of the company must meet the employees according to the comfort of both parties. The company representatives must mail them to set a schedule. The work might not get done in a single meeting. The first meeting may last for over 30 minutes because it is generally not in-depth. But, the further meets may last for over an hour because both parties may have to dive deep into the details.
The following points will get mentioned in the meetings:
- The SWOT analysis of the employees must get done.
- The employees must discuss their short and long-term goals and other expectations.
- Their current position must get considered.
- The requirements of the job they want must get discussed in depth.
- The employees must also get an idea of the advantages and disadvantages of their beliefs.
Step 3: Research
Some employees might not know what they want. Whereas, some employees might know what they want but do not understand how to achieve it. They must also be aware of the difference between their expectations and reality. Thus, deep research is necessary from the employee’s side for the same.
Step 4: Resource Identification
The representatives must arrange required resources inside and/or outside the company to fulfill the realistic expectations of the employees. The resources include:
- Additional certifications, training, and projects to help the employees gain experience related to their goals.
- The employees may access required books and other related materials either online or offline.
- They might look for mentors or related professionals or seek external courses from the universities. The mentors must provide feedback.
Step 5: Getting Ready For The Changes
The employees might come up with new expectations in every meeting. But, such meets cannot continue for eternity. So, the employees must finalize the list of expectations at some point. The representatives must get ready to accept the changes according to the changing requirements of the employees.
Step 6: Making A Career Development Plan
It is time to make a long-lasting plan by considering all the points mentioned above. Deadlines and timelines must get set for all the plans. The deadlines might not be strict, but if the employees miss any deadline, they might try to improve their performance, speed, and techniques. A career management software application might get used if the representatives fall short of ideas.
Step 7: Following The Plan
The plan must not remain only on the paper but get followed too. The company must maintain an Open Door policy regarding this matter to allow the interested employees to come ahead and share their ideas. The employees must start working with the short-term plans first instead of directly jumping on the long-term ones.
Step 8: Tracking The Progress
The progress of the employee and the company must get tracked and recorded regularly. Noting everything down at the end is a bad idea. The employees might come across new opportunities and experiences when they start working on the plan. Therefore, the employees must get guided by the related professionals. They must ask for feedback along with an idea of the milestones coming ahead.
Tips For Making A Career Development Plan
Though building a plan for career development is a good idea, the company representatives and the employees must not flow away with the positive sides. They must be aware of some challenges too.
The following are the tips to be considered while building and implementing the career development plan:
- It Is Not A Formal Documentation
The career development plan is only to guide the employees interested in developing their careers. The company representatives cannot create any legal or formal document or a contract in the name of a career development plan. The representatives are only present to guide the employees for their career development within the boundaries.
- The Employees Cannot Get Promises From The Representatives
The representatives cannot promise promotions, hikes, or internal mobility to the employees as a part of the career development plan because they are also working within the boundaries. But, they can suggest to them the ways for being capable of fulfilling such dreams. The employees must start with achieving short-term goals first and then move to the long-term goals.
- The Individuals Are Responsible For Their Careers
The company representatives must not find the resources for the employees. They only have to support the employees by allowing them to use the resources on behalf of the company. The employees must take charge of their careers and remember that they are responsible for their losses and gains.
Moving Towards the career development
After creating a career development plan, the employees can now start working on it. The employees must remember that only they have to struggle for themselves and not others.
The following are the tasks the employees can complete to move towards their career development.
- Enhancing The Skills
The employees must improve their skills by attending seminars, meetings, presentations, workshops, and more. It will help them in proving their capabilities. They can also get involved in certification courses, diploma or degree courses, training programs, tuitions, and more to boost their resume. They might refer to their dream job description or ask for feedback from the managers and peers to understand where they stand.
- Improving And Tracking The Performance
Before taking responsibility for something new, the employees must try to perform better for the current job. It includes meeting the deadlines, providing better outcomes within a small budget for the projects, multitasking, and mentoring the trainees or other co-workers whenever asked. They must track down their progress frequently. These small achievements help them to boost their abilities and resume.
- Applying For A Promotion
It is a big step towards career development. The employees must be capable enough of handling existing responsibilities before accepting more. They must carefully look at the job description and match their skills with the requirements. They might mention their key projects, certifications, training, and related experience in their resume. Additional responsibilities in terms of promotions provide related experience.
- Increasing The Social Media Presence
Social media, blogs, and personal websites are popular tools to increase the popularity and authenticity of an individual. The employees may mention their key projects, achievements, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, and interests on their social media profiles and provide the URLs to the employers. It has become necessary in this world of extreme competition.
- Building A Strong Network
Building strong relations with the key personnel is a good step towards individual development. None knows how these people will prove to be helpful in various situations. However, the employees must not be selfish while maintaining the relations. They must get ready to provide the other parties with possible help when required. Collaborating with different personalities helps individuals to understand how to handle different situations efficiently.
- Learning Something New
It is always recommended for the employees to keep on embracing new technologies. These technologies usually must be in line with the requirements of their managers. For example, the employees dreaming of working as Managers or Executive Assistants must be experts in handling the calendar management software. They must also know which software application fits their requirements.
Example of a written career development plan
The following is an example of a written career development plan for an employee in an organization:
| Deadline | ||
| My current position: | ||
| I am an Assistant Manager in the Back-end department. | — | |
| My Long-Term Goals: | ||
| To be the Recruiter of my department. | — | |
| Requirements to achieve the long-term goals: | ||
| Expertise in handling various types of databases. | 31 December 2021 | |
| Strong communication, time management, organizational, and analytical skills. | 31 December 2021 | |
| Graduation with a degree in Human Resources and many years of experience with databases. | Several years | |
| My Short-Term Goals: | ||
| To improve my communication, organization, time management, and analytical, decision-making, and interpersonal skills. | 31 December 2021 | |
| To look for a university that provides correspondence for graduating with a degree in Human Resources. | 31 October 2021 | |
| To increase my knowledge related to the back-end. | 31 December 2021 | |
| To develop strong professional relations with the key personalities of this company. | 30 November 2021 | |
| Key projects I have worked on: | ||
| Employee Attendance System. | — | |
| Student Attendance System. | — | |
| Exercise Tracker. | — | |
| Text Editor. | — | |
| Identified resources: | ||
| The HR Manager. | — | |
| The Manager of the Back-end department. | — | |
| The co-workers from the Back-end department. | — | |
| Attending monthly workshops for the department. | Every month | |
| Attending weekly meetings to track the progress of this department. | Every week | |
| JDBC/ODBC certification. | 5 January 2022 |
Conclusion
The career development plan is just a blueprint of the career flow for an individual. It does not mean any commitment of an individual towards a company. Even a piece of the career development plan is enough to help the individual to a certain extent. The employees must not force themselves into a position in the name of career development. Career development occurs due to productivity, and productivity gets affected by the interests of the employees.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Are Some Career Management Software Applications?
Answer:
The career management software applications mainly aim at helping individuals recognize their strengths and weaknesses, tracking their performance, and making them realize where they stand in terms of skills.
Some career management software applications are Leapsome, Bridge, Cornerstone, Gloat, and more.
- How Must An Individual Increase His/Her Performance At The Workplace?
Answer:
Some of the tips to increase individual work performance are as follows:
- The employees must take valid and short breaks while working.
- They must look for smart work instead of hard work to meet the deadlines. Prioritization of tasks plays an important role here.
- They must focus on productivity instead of perfection sometimes.
- They must also try to keep their desk and surrounding motivating.
