Resources That Can Help with Career Progression

http://www.coachingconfidence.co.uk/resources-that-can-help-with-career-progression/

In today’s guest post Sean Conrad shares resources that coaches may want to use for career and employment coaching.

Resources That Can Help with Career Progression

by Sean Conrad

When you’re coaching someone who wants to advance their career, there are numerous tools you can use to help them. But people often overlook some resources or programs their current employer may have in place that can be immensely helpful.

Here are 7 common talent management resources that anyone can use to help advance their career.

Why not ask you client to explore using these basic talent management resources as tools for better self-knowledge and career advancement? You can even discuss the results together in your coaching sessions, and help them put action plans in place.

1. Employee Performance Appraisals

Employee performance appraisals can be a great source of information about personal strengths and areas that need development. During their appraisal meetings with their managers, people are often more focused on showcasing their accomplishments so as to influence their pay rise. They forget to pay attention to the details of what their manager has to say about their performance.

Their performance appraisals often contain really valuable feedback about areas of weakness that they need focus on developing in order to progress in their careers. It can be very helpful to take some time to reread past performance appraisals, looking for trends, and looking honestly at some of the “negative” feedback. They can then work to address any identified skill gaps that may be standing in the way of their advancement.

2. 360 Degree Feedback

Many organisations allow employees to solicit 360 degree feedback from others, as part of their performance appraisal process. 360 degree feedback can help them get a broader picture of their strengths and weaknesses, which they can again use to focus development activities and prepare for that desired career move.

3. Job Postings

Reading their organisation’s job postings is a great way to become familiar with the education, skill and experience requirements for a new job. Your client can use job postings to find out what they need to do/learn in order to qualify for a promotion or to take their career in a new direction. And reading job postings regularly is a great way to uncover any new openings they might be qualified for and interested in.

4. Job Descriptions

If their company makes them available, reading job descriptions is another great way to learn about the requirements for that next job. Your client may find jobs they didn’t know about that use their core skills in a different way, or an entirely new position that really interests them. Just like job postings, job descriptions will give them a great summary of the requirements for the position so they know what they need to do to prepare for a move. Job descriptions are a great way to figure out if they’d even like the job they think they want.

5. Employee Profiles

If their organisation has online employee profiles your client can browse the profiles of those already in a job they’d like to move into and see what that person’s background, education, skills and experience are. It’s another great way to learn more about job requirements and focus their development activities. They can also use them to build their network or identify potential mentors.

6. Training and Development

Most organisations allot a specific training budget for every employee. Yet it’s amazing how many employees fail to take advantage of this. Encourage your client to find out what their training allotment or entitlement is, then make use of it. They can sign up for learning activities that will help them prepare for their next career move and help make them more valuable in their job today.

7. Team Work Assignments

Almost every organisation has teams or committees in place that bring together people from various parts of the organisation – these are often called cross-functional teams. Sometimes they’re focused on special work projects, but often they deal with business processes, employee engagement issues, customer satisfaction challenges, corporate social responsibility initiatives, etc.

Working on a cross-functional team is a great way to broaden ones knowledge and skills and meet people from across the organisation. It can expose the person to different parts of the business, broaden their understanding of their industry and build their network. All these are great career advancement tools they should seek out. Encourage your client to seek out cross-functional team assignments, or even volunteer for one.

These common talent management resources are available to employees in most organisations. You can easily encourage your client to seek them out and take advantage of them as part of your career coaching work together. With your help, they can become valuable tools for better self-knowledge and career advancement.