Career Development Tools and Techniques

In order to keep one’s career on the right track and see to its progress in the desired direction, one needs to have a career development plan in place. A career development plan encompasses three essential steps – continuous self-assessment, setting of concrete time-bound goals and development of an action plan.

Career development is facilitated by several tools or techniques that assist in identifying where one actually stands when evaluated in terms of the performance expectations from or professional goals or objectives of that person, which particular areas require improvement or change and what sort of plan is needed to address the required changes.

One such career development tool is assessment centre or developmental assessment centre. An assessment centre employs multiple assessors and multiple assessment techniques to assess multiple participants. Simulation techniques are used that simulate on-the-job situations to force the candidates to display job-related behaviours, which can be judged to identify the extent of certain competencies possessed by the participants. So, the basic aim of the assessment centres is to check whether a participant is a good fit for a given job or position, or for a position that he aspires to acquire or to be promoted to in future. This evaluation, as mentioned earlier, is done by determining to what extent the participant possesses the job-related competencies. The assessment centre data and findings can be used for various purposes – recruitment and selection, performance evaluation, training needs analysis, development etc. A developmental assessment centre focuses exclusively on development of the participants.

Career counselling is one other method where individuals are offered expert assistance in understanding the types of jobs that best match their skills, talents, interests and motivation. Career development workshops help the participants in developing required skills that will be needed to attain success in relevant job fields.

On-the-job training and learning can also be useful in acquiring skills specific to a particular job. To impart more generic set of skills that can be applied to a no. of jobs, a more formal training curriculum can be designed.

Job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment techniques can also be employed to let employees learn about cross-functional or cross-vertical skills, or to let them become more knowledgeable in their areas of work.

Assigning employees challenging and developmental job assignments can help to enhance key competencies and build experience in important job tasks before the individual actually assumes that position.

Often, organizations send its employees to attend specialized courses that are in line with the organization’s requirements. They sponsor the enrolment of these employees and the benefits are reaped by organizations as well as the employees – employees acquire additional knowledge and a professional degree, organizations get heightened performance from the employees, or the skills and capabilities to occupy some higher or specialized positions.

Sabbaticals or long-term leaves allow the employees to take a break and get re-energized before they return and start their jobs with new-found enthusiasm.

So, all these tools and techniques assist the employees actively in giving a shape and direction to their career and in making desired progress through the organization.