„What’s Next For Me? “
Today’s career planning is no longer about climbing the ladder and working your way to the top (wherever that is), it’s more about making sure you’re heading in the right direction—the direction that works for you, your family, your company and your personal definition of success.
That is often easier said than done. And most often than not, this leaves employees with many unanswered questions, adding to their confusion when it comes to career opportunities.
In co-creation with one of our clients, an innovative automotive supplier, we explored what their new development program “Drive Your Own Career” needed to address to provide a good answer to a very critical question any employee would be asking themselves: “What’s next for me?”
This, however, led to questions that needed to be scrutinized from the company as a whole:
• How can we drive ownership and pave the way for individualized, whole-hearted career development and growth?
• How can we inspire employees to build their strengths and interests and use these to contribute to the company’s vision and goals?
Anyone would be wondering, if it is even possible to ponder on such questions without hitting numerous roadblocks along the way. For how is it even possible to know if one is indeed headed towards the right direction to begin with? And what are the possibilities that a company can offer to make this even possible?
It is indeed possible to achieve.
First, we need to define ways to tap into the vast source of employees’ preferences, aspirations and values, and offer the mindsets and tools required to pro-actively help drive their career. We provide a process that not only grants guidance to employees in building their future, but one that is also valuable in designing new products and services for the company. We do believe that being transparent about the career landscape and offering reasonable opportunities to explore and test career aspirations should be a building block of any career program fostering growth. If we encourage employees to bring their whole self to the workplace, we can plant a seed for a culture of continuous learning and development. To sum it up, the result we came up with while working with our client was a 4-week journey with valuable road stops.
1. Explore what makes life and work meaningful for me
2. Discover my strengths, increase coherence and ideate future career possibilities
3. Understand career path & opportunities at my company
4. Create my own development & transformation plan
5. Implement my plan & own my career
6. Check on my development
All in all, it was wonderful to witness how the two pilots in Germany and the US have unfolded triumphantly and we are more than delighted to announce that the program will roll out globally as well.
If you are interested and would like to know more about our programme, please contact Dorle Feldmeier.
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