Good organisations often create a career development charter. This describes the individual’s responsibility and the organisation’s responsibility in helping people to develop their careers.
This is because the world of work continues to evolve. Today there are fewer predictable career paths but there will always be projects. This calls for people to aiming:
To build on their strengths and do superb work that helps people to achieve success.
This also calls for them learning how to do this in way that earns enough to support their chosen lifestyle. People can often do this by using their strengths to help individuals, teams or organisations to achieve success.
Good organisations encourage people to make their best contributions towards achieving the organisation’s goals. Some also encourage people to take responsibility for shaping their future careers.
Such organisations set the tone by creating a career development charter. As mentioned earlier, this describes the individual’s and the organisation’s responsibility in helping people to develop their careers.
One approach is for an organisation to simply create and communicate The Career Development Charter. This sets the scene and also outlines how the organisation will aim to help people develop their careers.
Another approach is to create a provisional version of The Career Development Charter. It is then to hold workshops that involve some employees adding their ideas to the Charter.
The second approach sounds more risky but it also has pluses. The key to make it clear that people are adding to the ideas. Providing this is done in a positive way, it also offers an opportunity for educating people about the evolving world of work.
Looking back, I have helped organisations to use both approaches. During the early 1990s, for example, I ran workshops on this theme with both the leadership team and groups of employees.
The organisation had a positive environment but also encouraged people to take responsibility for developing their careers. The following pages describe some elements of The Career Development Charter that emerged.
Different organisations will produce different versions of such a charter, but some themes may be timeless. Here is a summary of The Career Development Charter that the organisation produced.
Imaging you work in an organisation. Many people will always want to develop their careers. Bearing this in mind, it can be useful:
To produce The Career Development Charter:
To encourage people to continue to make their best contributions to the organisation;
To provide them with encouragement and practical tools that they can use to take responsibility for shaping their future careers.
Some people will say that this approach is risky because it may mean that some people leave the organisation. That may be the case, but such people may leave anyway.
The organisation I worked with in the early 1990s – and many since then – found that it helped to encourage people to take responsibility for shaping their careers. It produced benefits for both the individuals and the organisation.
Let’s return to your own work. Imagine that you work in an organisation and want to follow elements of The Career Development Charter approach. How can you do this in your own way? What may happen as a result of taking these steps?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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