A career development plan is totally different from a performance appraisal. Performance appraisals focus on your supervisor? perception of your contributions and your developmental needs over the course of the past six months to a year.
A career development plan is future-focused and details what you as an employee would like to learn and contribute. A word of caution here, career development plans are not created in a vacuum. It is essential for employees to take into account departmental and organizational needs, objectives and goals when creating their career plans.
Personal and professional growth is important factors for keeping your career moving in a direction with which you are satisfied. Prior to setting up a meeting to discuss your plan with your manager or supervisor you will want to engage in self-assessment so that you will be able to clearly define and articulate your goals and developmental needs.
Career development plans must therefore recognize that:
- Members of the organization should receive recognition as individuals with unique needs, wants, and abilities.
- Individuals are more motivated by an organization that responds to their aspirations and needs.
- Individuals can grow, change and seek new directions if they are given the right opportunities, encouragement and guidance.
The purpose of career development is to:
- Enhance each employee’s current performance.
- Enable individuals to take advantage of future job opportunities
fulfill their employer’s goals for a dynamic and effective workforce.
We live in uncertain times. Factors outside of the employee and employer’s control may affect the outcome of career actions. But one thing is true – the best career development move is to perform well in one’s current position.
Consistent, high quality performance along with thoughtful career planning will help ensure continued success on the job.
Career Development Planning Techniques
Career planning uses all the information generated by the succession plans, performance, and potential assessments and self-assessments to develop programs and procedures which are designed to implement career management policies, achieve succession planning objectives and generally improve motivation, commitment and performance. The procedures used are those concerned with:
- Personal development planning
- Training and management development
- Mentoring
- Career counseling
In addition, career development planning procedures may cater for the rising stars by ‘fast tracking’ them, that is, deliberately accelerating promotion and giving them opportunities to display and enlarge their talents. But these procedures should pay just as much, if not more, attention to those managers who are following the middle route of steady, albeit unspectacular, progression.
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