Development Is About Creating Opportunities – Friday Distraction
(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, the global leader in delivering workforce solutions in the cloud. Kronos workforce solutions are built to help you create a workforce of top performers and manage them all effectively, regardless of your organization’s size, industry, or complexity. Visit them at HR Technology conference in booth #1622. Enjoy the post!)
I continue to hear from business executives that employees need to “own their careers.” I’m totally cool with the concept. Employees understand their career goals better than anyone, so they should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to accomplishing them.
But this change in philosophy doesn’t come without an increased employer obligation. I adore this Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos because it captures beautifully the organizational impact of employees owning their careers.
IMHO, employees are very willing to own their careers. But employees want to know that the organization respects the responsibility they’ve been given. They want to work for companies that offer training programs that anyone can attend, versus simply going to the programs they’ve been assigned. Employees want compensation packages that allow them to pay for personal development. They want benefits like tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment that allow them to continue to grow their education and career.
Employees want opportunities. Because opportunities are the new professional development.
Organizations cannot simply cut their learning and development offerings using the mantra that employees “own” their professional development. In fact, I’d argue that telling employees they’re in charge of their own careers means companies need to step up their learning game. Because if they don’t, employees might seek out new opportunities to learn elsewhere.
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