Charting A Career Course in 2012?
Have you developed your Individual Development Plan (IDP) for 2012?
In this month’s issue of the Helios Newsletter “The Chariot” Senior Human Resources Business Partner Beth Singh provides tips to get started:
Charting a Career Course in 2012 — Developing an Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Beth Singh, Sr. HRBP
It’s that time of year again, the time when individuals and organizations are most likely to think about what lies ahead and what they plan to do about it. Of course, an argument could be made that in the context of future-focused development planning, that time should really be continuous, but that’s a discussion for another day. Let’s talk instead about the opportunity you have in front of you right now, as a leader of others, to help your employees chart their course this year.
Many of us who have been in management for a while can easily underestimate the power of what’s before us when we enter development planning discussions. After all, it’s possible that many of us charted our own course or frankly, that we happened upon what we learned a little more organically than employees do now. Today, the landscape is different. Not only is there an opportunity to initiate planning discussions with employees. There’s a responsibility, to the people and to the business. After all, if you aren’t talking to your employees about their development, someone else is or will be soon.
So what does that look like in the days of a multi-generational workforce, with limited time and likely, even more limited dollars available? You might be surprised to learn that getting started doesn’t have to be terribly complicated at all and in fact, it doesn’t have to cost much either.
Here are some Individual Development Planning (IDP) tips:
- Invest the time — IDP’s are a great engagement and retention tool when done well and in the spirit of continuous growth. Initiate the dialogue and offer your honest, constructive assessment of performance and potential, based on the individual’s skills and the organization’s priorities.
- Give adequate, if not slightly more, weight to reinforcing strengths than to developing weaknesses. Sure, we all have to develop the areas that challenge us and a strong IDP likely does push us out of our comfort zone just a bit, but companies and individuals gain much more when they can identify and grow natural talents.
“One cannot build on weaknesses. To achieve results, one has to use all the available strengths…These strengths are the true opportunities” (Drucker, 1967) - Encourage employees to develop a plan that is interesting, achievable, practical and realistic — for both the employee and the organization (HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector). Your job is to initiate the discussion and to approve the final plan. Employees play a critical and lead role in the plan’s development and its continued momentum.
- Remember that there are many options available to develop employees. Think creatively about on-the-job training, committee work, leadership opportunities, job rotation, job shadowing, “stretch” assignments (with appropriate support), webinars, offsite training and conferences. The direct costs of most of these are nominal.
The bottom line is, start somewhere and set the standard. If your organization isn’t there yet, you can still engage your team in these development-oriented discussions. I assure you that they will see the value and will likely demonstrate it in their engagement in the job and commitment to the organization. As with most things after all, it’s the sincerity of the gesture, the welcoming of the dialogue and the commitment to mutual success that have the most profound impact on the courses we chart in life.
To sign up to receive “The Chariot” click: http://www.helioshr.com/resources/chariot-newsletter
Helios Participates In SHRM Day On The Hill
On Wednesday November 30, 2011, one of our HRBP/Senior Talent Acquisition Consultants, Matt Walker, gratefully joined the SHRM Advocacy Team on the Hill for the day to help inform legislators on how current public policy issues can affect employees, employers, and the HR profession as a whole. The SHRM Advocacy Team initiative is designed for HR professionals to participate and influence federal public policy and regulatory efforts. SHRM understands how vital member participation is to advancing the views of the profession on Capitol Hill and provides members with opportunities to “put a face” behind HR and to let their voices be heard.
Looking for information on SHRM’s Advocacy Team? SHRM A-Team
Cultivating Success
In anticipation of the upcoming 5th anniversary of the Apollo Awards, Helios HR checked in with some of the previous winners to see what they have been doing to continue to foster a culture of continuous learning and development. Stay tuned each month as we highlight different organizations and count down to the annual awards breakfast ceremony at the McLean Hilton on June 1st, where we recognize the finalists and winners for 2011.
“It is important to sustain our culture with every new hire and with every project and client that we take on.” – Lynn Ann Casey, CEO, Arc Aspicio
At Arc Aspicio, there is an intentional focus on providing employees with mission-critical skills important to both organizational success and individual career development. Our culture today is innovative and entrepreneurial. Stewardship is a core value of the company. We make the employees responsible for the company’s success and for moving the organization forward. Two years ago, we made an intentional investment in hiring a Director of Talent and Operations because we knew that bringing in the best talent and keeping it would be our biggest challenge. Creating a role of that sort is unusual for a company our size, but it proved to be a great investment. We’re a 25-person company now, and we have two people focused exclusively on talent leadership. It is a big investment that has really paid off. We’ve grown revenue by 50 percent in 2010 without bringing on additional staff. We’re more efficient and productive. That’s due to the people we’ve hired and the resources we’ve invested in them.
Because we go for the best, it takes a bit more work on our part to find people that we want to be part of our organization for the long term. To find the people we want, we are using a social networking tool called Jobvite. Jobvite has been a huge part of our success. Everyone in the company participates in using that tool. We implemented it 18 months ago, and it helps us attract more people. It targets people who know the people that are already working for us. Since it is word-of-mouth and 100 percent employee referrals, it’s generating a very strong candidate pool. Today, 80 percent of our employees have been referred by other employees. Plus we have 1,800 qualified candidates in the pipeline. We have to have the right people on board and in the pipeline because we want to grow organically - by having our current clients asking us to do more work. If we hire the right people, organic growth occurs easily because clients are happy and our business grows due to word of mouth.
What Do Your Employees Need to Achieve Their Goals?
As we enter the last stretch of Q1 in 2011, your organization may be cementing performance goals and initiatives. However, setting the goals may seem much easier than achieving them.
Goal Alignment, cascading goals and the TOPS ideal (Tied to Organizational Priorities and Success) drives many companies to begin the goal setting process by announcing yearly goals and initiatives. Ideally, before goals can be aligned employees must be able to understand how their actions affect the organization’s success. It is a common practice for goal setting to align with the performance management process. Reviewing progress made towards individual goals no less than quarterly, and often monthly is common.
To make this clearer, managers must be able to translate the organization’s goals to their direct reports, making the connection from organization goals to employee goals more visible.
Once this vantage point is clear, employees can set their individual goals using the SMART formula (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound). We recommend that managers take the role of supporter and sponsor in this step. Encouraging employees to take ownership of setting the goals ultimately helps ensure their accountability for goal attainment. Ideally, identifying resources for goal attainment is a collaborative process that leaves the employee motivated and ready to take on the challenge of the goal.
As your organization gears up for Q2 and the remainder of 2011,points to consider include: align individual goals with organizational goals; identify resources for successful achievement; communicate the impact of ongoing changes to resources; and recognize the need to check in and provide feedback to all employees, including your high-performers. Building a high level of communication with employees allows them to feel supported during their successes, but more importantly, during times when obstacles may present themselves.
Harnessing the Power of Enterprising Women
Wow. As I travel back from the Enterprising Women conference and awards gala I realize how ill prepared I was. Not prepared for the level of camaraderie, support, creativity and excitement that I found in collective abundance. 49 female CEOs from around our nation and Canada were honored as award winners across multiple categories and represented incredible diversity. Diversity in products, in services, in cultures and in background. Yet these women were far more similar than different.
A differentiator of these women is that they don’t want to be just the ‘best’ in their industry. They want to ‘change’ their industry. Their vision is to have their company be seen as an employer of choice, all while ensuring philanthropy is a part of their corporate culture.
Giving back is integral to their leadership as they are personally involved in expanding and enhancing philanthropy in their community.
These women are gracious, authentic and supportive. They believe in ‘loving your mistakes’ as they’re the best learning tool you have. I encourage you to check out Enterprising Women magazine and consider nominating a deserving CEO for the 2012 award. Then come to the conference and awards gala. You’ll be very pleased you did. www.enterprisingwomen.com ~ Kathy Albarado