Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2022 - 65

JULIE WINKLE GIULIONI
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT
CAREER 2022:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
The events of the past two years and
The Great Resignation have brought
into clear focus the extraordinary
impact of growth, learning, skill building
and development of all kinds on
retention and organizational results. In
the next several editions, we'll explore
how career development is changing,
as well as ways to use it to engage and
retain talent.
You've likely seen the statistics. According
to Gallup, 87% of millennials say
professional growth and career
development are very important. And
76% of employees are looking for
opportunities to expand their careers.
While 94% of employees say they would
stay at a company longer if it invested in
their learning and development (L&D).
Career development is one of the most
powerful tools L&D professionals have
to make a difference - for employees
and the organization. But as the world
of work has changed, so too has our
relationship with careers:
* Workforce demographics are changing.
Employees are becoming younger and
more mobile.
* Tenures are becoming shorter. On
average, employees remain in a role
for just over four years.
* Movement is the norm. Employees
entering the workforce today will
change jobs an average of 12 times
over the course of their working lives.
* There's talk of the end of jobs
altogether. Future work may " focus
far less on static jobs and far more
on skills, experience, diversity,
adaptiveness, and flexibility. "
* Deep soul-searching over the past
two years has sparked COVID
epiphanies. Many employees have
arrived at powerful insights about
what's most important and what they
want out of life.
Now is the perfect time to rethink
careers and determine the best way to
develop them. Here are two strategies
to get started.
WE'VE MISTAKENLY
CONFLATED CAREER
DEVELOPMENT WITH
PROMOTIONS AND MOVES.
ELEVATE THE CONVERSATION
In many organizations, career
development has become primarily
process-focused. There are forms,
tools and deadlines - all of which
are necessary to meet the needs of
the organization for workforce and
succession planning. But let's be
clear: These don't do much to meet
the employee's need for genuine
connection, understanding, inspiration
or growth. What does, however, deliver
on these needs is real - sometimes
raw - dialogue.
Meaningful rethinking or redefinition of
careers and development begins with
conversation. As a result, managers
must be prepared to lead with curiosity
and great questions. They need to probe
(respectfully) about what others want
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - WINTER 2022 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
out of the time they spend at work. They
need to listen ferociously and commit to
clarity and understanding. Finally, they
need to create a psychologically safe
space, build trust and earn the right
to hear and support their employees'
candid thoughts, needs, interests
and aspirations.
SHIFT THE FOCUS
Working with hundreds of organizations
over the past 20 years, I've discovered
that a significant factor in the current
confusion related to careers is that we've
mistakenly conflated career development
with promotions and moves. The
standard career conversation question,
" Where do you see yourself in XX years? "
only serves to reinforce the connection.
Clarifying what " career " means today
requires helping employees shift their
attention from what they want to be
to what they want to do. This means
shifting the focus to what kind of work
people want to do, the achievements
and accomplishment they desire and
how they want to grow personally
and professionally.
There are a lot of unknowns in business.
One thing we do know is that people
will continue to be deeply interested
in their careers. Let's help them figure
what that means today - so they
can get on with developing them in
meaningful ways tomorrow.
Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of
the forthcoming book, " Promotions
Are SO Yesterday " and the bestseller
" Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go. "
Email Julie.
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https://www.g2.com/articles/employee-development https://www.leftronic.com/blog/employee-training-statistics/ https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/resources/pdfs/LinkedIn-Learning-2020-Workplace-Learning-Report.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-number-jobs-in-lifetime/ https://www.forrester.com/blogs/nomorejobs/ https://www.forrester.com/blogs/nomorejobs/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2022

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