Career Development Can Help Retain Talent (Chicago Tribune)
I have been a career counselor for over 20 years and I have been expressing this sentiment since I started my career counseling practice.
I had the opportunity to work with Sun Microsystem and Hewlett Packard employees in the mid-1990’s when these companies began offering career counseling programs for their employees.
Though sometimes employees moved on, having the opportunity to assess skills, interest, values and fit enabled them to better communicate to their manager the professional development they needed for their professional growth and satisfaction.
Managers felt more qualified and confident when assisting their employees with professional development.
My work as a career counselor encompasses helping my clients with many different facets of their career and work, including:
- resolving communication issues and misunderstandings with managers and co-workers;
- clarifying and translating their skills for the next step in their career, whether at their current workplace or the next;
- identifying professional career goals., short term, intermediate term, long term;
- determining the best strategy to discuss professional development with their manager.
And these are the ways that a career development can have a positive impact on the organization. Clients find themselves to be more motivated about their work and their future when they have the opportunity for professional development. And it is more likely they will want to stay with a company if they have the opportunity to continue to learn, develop their skills and add value.