by Ted Saul
To keep your employees happy, it’s important to hold career development meetings on a regular basis. Sooner or later members of your staff will want to better themselves by taking a promotion or changing positions to move forward in their career. The thought of having to replace a top former is not pleasant; however studies show that money alone is usually not enough to challenge employees. Recognition and career growth are greater job satisfaction drivers, especially for those in the technical and professional roles.
Helping your employees stay in a job that they really enjoy may be the best way to keep them. Training and new skill development along with added responsibilities will be key elements of a career plan. However sometime you may agree that an entirely new position is the best move. For a successful and thorough job hunt, you can suggest the following guidelines. First, if the business is large enough look within the current organization.
For example, if they are a sales representative, they may be interested in transferring to sales management position in another region. It may provide new challenges as well as an opportunity to relocate to a different part of the country and you get to keep your top talent. Second, suggest they look elsewhere within the company for a new job. Perhaps they would like to move from an accounting role to an IT role. New skills and retraining will be required but this could be the challenge they are looking for and you are ensured that your talent does not leave the company.
Finally, if all efforts have failed to find a career path within the company, then you may want to recommend they look for a position at other companies. Websites such as Dice and Monster Board can help an employee gain an understanding of what is available on the outside. Searches can be done by the type of job they are looking for to determine the feasibility of making a move. While losing an employee is not the most favorable outcome, it will be better than having someone on your staff that is dissatisfied.
And there is a good possibility that after their research, the employee will find that the “grass isn’t greener” and may be willing to make some compromises to stay with your company. The end goal is to make the career development plans a win-win situation for employee and employer. Suggesting all options shows you are truly concerned for and respect the individual’s choice. Be sure to encourage follow-up and regular updating of the plan to ensure they remain relevant to your employee’s current situation. And as you hold these meetings, be sure to reinforce with employees that they own their career development and your role is to coach. After all, it’s better to be in control of your destiny rather than having someone else making the decisions.
Ted Saul provides private business consulting that assists startup and small businesses with organizational and planning needs. Ted holds an MBA from Regis University out of Denver Colorado and can be reached at t.saul@juno.com“>t.saul@juno.com, teds787 on Twitter and on Linkedin.