Issue 365 March 15, 2017
Employers who support career development of their staff and provide resources and ongoing performance coaching are more likely to retain their talent than those who do not facilitate such measures. Many organisations have had the experience of investing in expensive education programmes, only to find the person who benefited is changed by the experience and decides to leave shortly after returning.
Most employers expect their managers to take personal responsibility for their careers but offer little support and tools. American and Asian companies make long term investment in their employees with career development playing an important role.
Coaching offers individuals the opportunity to take personal responsibility and accountability for their career development. This in turn engenders loyalty and employee satisfaction, increases key staff retention and ensures skills and information are retained.
Other experts said companies that conscientiously promote career development plans have been able to retain employee loyalty as a large number of long-serving personnel in national, multinational and small enterprises indicate.
Developing human capital
Companies that are forward in their thinking have long identified the need to develop their human capital. Such of them provide financial, time and often mentoring support to employees undertaking learning opportunities.
Most Kiwi businesses do not realise the important part they must play but are concerned with their own progress.
New Zealand business and workplace culture favours skilled generalists with high responsibility rather than expert specialists with low responsibility. It is more difficult than most managers realise for professionals to make the transition from large scale, richly resourced corporate environments, to thinly resourced but entrepreneurial workplaces.
Employers can create opportunities for professionals who have left the country rather than the government resorting to immigration to solve skills shortage problem.
Massey Research
A Massey University Research Project that aims to explore the link between executive education and productivity would be valuable to employers and employees in understanding the importance of career development.
Called, ‘The New Zealand Executive Education Survey 2017,’ the study is a partnership between the Massey Business School researchers and the Institute of Management New Zealand (IMNZ).
We have a detailed report on this Project in our Businesslink pages.
Modelled on the ‘Corporate Learning Survey’ of the UK based Henley Business School, the Project will measure the extent to which New Zealand firms invest in executive education compared to their Australian and British counterparts.
The Massey and Henley business schools will share the results from their respective surveys and the Australian Institute of Management will also participate, allowing the capture of comparative data from Australia.
We look forward to sharing the results of this important research with our readers when they come to hand.
