How to Motivate Employees Through Career Development

Human resource departments seek career development opportunities to motivate employees.

While a successful career development plan increases a company’s productivity and retains valuable employees, what’s more important is what it does for the individual employee. It is increasingly necessary for workers to build upon their job skills and educational background in order to remain marketable in a constantly-changing, technological world. Take an active role in helping your employees develop their careers to increase job satisfaction and create happy workers who feel they matter to their employers.

Instructions

1. Determine which career development activities and programs to offer. Choose those best-suited for your particular business that can ideally be implemented to benefit individual employees and the company as a whole. Provide regular opportunities (at the company’s expense) for employees to obtain training to sharpen or build upon their job skills and increase their level of professionalism. Prevent job burnout and boredom by instituting job rotation, which allows employees to take turns working a variety of job positions. Teach workers the skills necessary to perform other job positions to cover for busy or absent coworkers with cross-training. Let employees adapt their work schedules (with limitations) around their children’s activities, second jobs or college classes through flexitime. Challenge employees who seek more responsibility with job enrichment or enlargement. Help elder workers gradually taper their work hours to allow smooth transitions into retirement.

2. Discuss career development offerings with the newly-hired. These options appeal to potential, qualified applicants and encourage new hires to aspire to stay with the company for extended periods of time. Start things off on a positive, encouraging note by explaining that viable options are available to them if they wish to grow within the company. Offer each new hire a mentor to turn to for advice and help in adjusting to his new workplace.

3. Post job openings regularly. Show respect for employees by keeping them informed of vacant positions and offering them the first chances to apply for advancements or promotions within the company. Taking advantage of career development offerings prepares current employees to start newly-opened positions with little training, boosting the employee’s self-confidence.

4. Complete regular employee evaluations. Discuss each worker’s career goals and aspirations within the company. This should be done at least annually, according to the University of California, San Francisco Human Resources Department. Develop a trusting relationship and level of respect between worker and employer by giving honest assessments and feedback on workers’ skills, strengths, weaknesses and work habits. Let workers know what they need to do to stay on the right path to achieving their career goals. Employees gain self-satisfaction and pride knowing they control their own career paths. Keep a written record of the information discussed at these meetings.

5. Follow up on the effectiveness of your company’s career development offerings. Inform employees of success stories and make changes when things aren’t working or leading to desired results. Write about coworkers who have been promoted, graduated college or attended recent workshops or seminars to sharpen their skills or learn new ones as part of the company’s career development programs. Distribute this information through company newsletters or employee bulletin boards to prove to employees that they can enhance their lives and grow professionally by staying with the company, working hard and partaking in career development.

References

• University of California, San Francisco Human Resources: Employee Development and Training
• exploreHR.org: Career Development Program