Aug 1, 2010

Home/Workplaces/What should I do next?

What should I do next?

Ten ways to get going with career development

  1. Host an event during National Career Development Week for your staff. Register the event in our calendar. You might consider partnering with other organisations in your community to co-host an event. Check out the Events Search for activities in your area. Do the local schools know what your organisation or industry sector does? Help inform the workers of tomorrow by supporting a local school careers event.
  2. Look and learn from what others are doing. Check out the Event Search to see what events others have organised (or email us for ideas at contact_team@ncdw.com.au). Search the web for examples of career planning in other workplaces, for example, Five Point Plan - Response to Financial Crisis (Fraser Coast Regional Council, QLD); Community Learning and Career Development Plan (Yarra Ranges Shire, VIC).
  3. Learn more about career development by taking the free online course at Australian Career Development Studies and encourage your staff to take the module with you. This could even form part of your event!
  4. Talk with your employees about what they want from you, as their employer, and what you expect from them. Money is not the only key motivator for many people, and their responses may surprise you. These discussions can be individual (if both parties are comfortable with this) or in group format. Be prepared to make real changes to your organisation on the basis of discussion.
  5. Consider ways that your organisation can support charities and/or non-profit organisations on a regular basis. You might give staff an allocation of paid leave days each year to work for a charity, or undertake fundraising activities within your organisation for a chosen group/s. Either way, relationships like this are profitable: you enhance your organisation's profile as a leading corporate citizen expose staff to environments in which they can develop new skills, and allow your staff an opportunity to achieve the ‘emotional fulfilment' that many desire. It also provides your staff the opportunity to look at things from a new perspective...which is a nifty way to kick-start inspiration, creative thinking, ideas and innovation.
  6. Invite an inspirational person to speak, and possibly interact with your staff. It's a great way to learn about someone's life path and understand how their family, friends, interests and events influenced them and their career. Ask staff to take note of how they handled the influences or experiences (both positive and negative) and see if you can apply any of the lessons to your life, or the development of your organisation. Don't forget your own staff's stories. Do you know them? Are they inspirational?
  7. Take a long, hard look at your organisation from the perspective of an employee. Insync Surveys Retention Review (Sept, 07) reports the top five reasons for employees leaving (that are within the employers control), as being 1) lack of job satisfaction, 2) little opportunity for career advancement, 3) pay and conditions, 4) inability to balance work and life demands, and 5) lack of challenge in one's role. Now answer the question, would you stay? If you feel uncomfortable saying ‘Yes', try to identify the problems or issues.
  8. Have you ever completed a retention checklist? Try the one at Human Resources - how do you rate?
  9. Look at examples of organisations with great Career Development Practices:
  10. Update your website to show what you are doing for employees and their Professional Development / Career Development and let us know.

Participate and have fun. Get excited! Get involved! Get results!

  • FAQs
  • Join NCDW Community
  • Send Us Your Career Stories
  • Send Us Your Event Stories
  • Send Us Your Event Pictures