2021 had its challenges, with some businesses reporting a tougher year than 2020 [1]. Ongoing pandemic pressures took a psychological toll, with impacts on attrition, wellbeing, engagement and productivity.
HR professionals are working hard to mitigate these, while taking a lead on diversity, inclusion and capability for the future. For some, career development has been held back as they focused on firefighting, whether for survival, or to meet unprecedented customer demand.
But now is the time to ensure your people are invested in – and to refine your career development offer to make sure it supports both recovery and growth.
Our recent conversations with HR leaders indicate that many are re-appraising their career offer to address these challenges.
1. New career propositions
Problem: The pandemic has led many employees to question the fit between their job, the opportunities they see, and their future. This has led to a loss of talent as employees resign. At the same time, companies are experiencing difficulties recruiting in a tight labour market. Some, who had to let employees go during the pandemic, now need to rapidly re-hire to survive.
Solution: Organisations tell us they are competing to offer the most inventive and enticing career propositions that work to attract and retain talent. Offering roles as packaged ‘career experiences’ supported by a career development programme such as Be Bold in your Career is one way to attract and retain.
2. Inclusion
Problem: HR leaders work hard to ensure bias-free recruitment and promotion processes. Yet it’s harder to influence more subjective areas of development – like stretch opportunities, advocacy, and even talent identification – to ensure they are inclusive.
Solution: Meaningful change requires multiple interventions. One simple action is to use career development coaching that gives everyone the skills to grow their careers. A good online programme drives inclusion by empowering everyone to promote their unique brand and skillset, develop their network of career advocates, and be primed to seize future opportunities. Pair with an inclusive career strategy[2] to demolish cultural limits and barriers.
3. Re-grouping for a shared future
Problem: We are living in uncertain times and this underpins a lot of the stress that employees are feeling.
Solution: An established way to relieve stress is by developing personal agency[3]. Investing in employees so they feel in control of their careers[4], become more agile, and can take action for their future, are positive steps from responsible organisations. A scalable career development intervention means large groups of employees can easily be equipped to take ownership of their careers and experience greater job satisfaction[5].
While 2022 will undoubtedly throw up new challenges, what is certain is that we all need to be able to recover and grow at pace. This is a time for more doing and less contemplation.
Adding some launch-ready career tools is a cost-effective way of solving HR challenges, without having to redesign your entire offer. In under 100 days, your employees could have completed empowering career development that helps your people strategy to quickly become reality. To find out more about our open and customised programmes please get in touch.
[1] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/corporate-responsibility/responsible-business-through-crisis
[2] https://www.careerinnovation.com/solutions/career-strategy-consulting/
[3] https://unhealthywork.org/job-strain/a-brief-introduction-to-job-strain/
[4] https://www.careerinnovation.com/developing-personal-agency-for-career-growth/
[5] https://www.careerinnovation.com/which-career-management-skills-are-most-closely-linked-to-career-satisfaction/
