Focuses on identifying, defining and documenting the requirements for multi-dimensional career planning programs for organizations.
Often organizations seek to clarify a consistent approach for supporting career planning for groups of individuals. One of the most important steps in creating a high-impact program is to define requirements based on reliable data. Our process for customized needs assessments is similar for leadership, career planning and talent management engagements with implementation most often including both a survey and structured interviews with key stakeholders, evaluating various organizational dimensions for both current and ideal future state such as:
- The specific purposes that career development serves (e.g., individual growth, retention, improved employee satisfaction, high potential program support, succession planning, leadership pipeline/bench strength development, etc.);
- The availability of career supports (e.g., training, web resources, networking/social communities, tools, coaches/mentors/counselors, etc.);
- The availability of sponsorship for a program (e.g., early adopters, top management support, identified champions, etc.);
- The level of career mobility and career path options in the organization (e.g., available assignments. clear functional career paths, opportunities for advancement, etc.).
The outcome of our needs assessments always include a written report documenting vulnerabilities, key opportunities, and clear recommendations. In many cases, we are also engaged to provide a presentation to stakeholders or lead a workshop to start translating findings into an action plan.