PERSONAL CAREER TALENT2 COACHING
Singapore - With 22% of Singapore executives believing that companies have the responsibility of managing an employee's career, should companies provide career management programmes for their employees?
A recent Talent2 survey found that while 65% of 200 respondents surveyed believed career management to be of personal responsibility, 22% said such responsibility needs to be on the shoulders of companies. Another 13% said career management was the responsibility of the government.
In light of these findings, Mark Powell, regional manager of Talent2's outplacement and transitioning business says many companies are apprehensive of providing career change management programmes for their employees as they view it as a conflict of interest for the organisation. "Many companies take the view of, 'If you are an employee and I invest time in helping you really discover what you want to do in life and how you get there, then I run the risk of losing you.'"
While that may be partially true, Powell says employees who believe they should be "doing something else" will eventually jump ship sooner or later anyway, and it is in organisations' interests to be more pro-active with their employees' career management. "It doesn't mean that they should help employees contact headhunters. But companies could be doing a lot more in helping individuals really examine who they are and what their options are."
To do so, Powell says companies can employ a combination of on-going internal and external career management programmes. While external experts can lend their expertise in helping line managers and leaders implement and execute a career management programme, Powell adds that external parties can also provide objectivity to employees as well.
"Executives are going to say different things to an external neutral party than they are to an internal [party. And you can't have an honest examination of your career options with someone in-house," he adds.
As for internal career management programmes, Powell says simple things such as career buddying or career mentoring can be executed within the company. However, mentors or HR practitioners need the right coaching skills to help facilitiate career discussions. In addition, Powell says mentors or coaches need to have good listening skills, empathy. They also need to act with care and adhere to a level of confidentiality as well. "There are steps that [companies] can take to help people develop internal careers. Career management is certainly as much internal as it is external."
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