Jon: Why is career development more important now than any other time in which you've been working in this field around career development and progression? And, what are some of the benefits or risks to organizations if they're not focusing on this notion today?
Julie: I think the employment landscape almost says it all, doesn't it? The great resignation or reallocation or reevaluation whatever we want to call it. It started to be written about in leadership and management journals and talked about in those sorts of circles. And now it's mainstream. CNN is running stories day in and day out about the folks who are leaving or thinking about leaving in record numbers. In fact, I just read the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August results. 4.3 [million] Americans quit their jobs in August. That's the largest number they have ever recorded in the history of their data gathering.
And so organizations are doing some pretty incredible, unimaginable things right now to retain and attract talent.
And I think many are finding that the current spending levels, position inflation that they're having to engage in, the hoops that they're jumping through, it's not sustainable. And they're realizing that retention is going to depend upon some more authentic factors, things like relationships and respect and the opportunity to grow.
We know from the research that career development is one of the primary reasons people join an organization and leave one. It's a key driver for engagement. In fact, for years I've talked about career development is like a Swiss Army knife. And I think as a result, it's really a tool for our times right now.
Jon: Yeah, it's 4.3 million Americans in August. That's an incredible number. It's an article that just kind of came through one of my morning scrolls in my Apple news feed. But the title really captured my attention. It says,"quitting your job is the new self care." It's a very powerful statement, but it's also very real and very internal for folks. What about you, Christine? What are you seeing and thinking about this whole world that's changing around us?
Christine: Yeah. As Julie was talking, and I was just thinking, yes, we've got this retention challenge, this acquiring talent, and what you said, Jon, really is where my mind was going, which is the other piece of the story is for the employees that we do acquire and that are in our organization is the quality of the work that they're doing and their mental state. And we're seeing all the data come out now from our COVID and ongoing COVID year 2 around employees feeling more isolated, the stress levels.
Gallop's recent report about North America generally speaking about how stressed we all are, all generations. And so when you look at the data around stress and mental health and engagement as well, and you match that with employees saying on these surveys in mass numbers – 60, 70, 80 percent of employees that LinkedIn is surveying, that Price Waterhouse is surveying, et cetera, are saying they think professional and career development is a solution that they see as an investment in them. And so we're seeing the correlation happen around the employees' perception of what well being means.
"I don't want to leave if that's self care, how can I get that self care and investment in me while I'm still here?" And I think that's where this new phase of career development is coming into play. And it's really exciting.
Jon: And so that's really important. And if we thought as we were just talking about kind of the why and what is changing, maybe, Christine, what are you seeing out there in organizations of the how is it changing today?
Christine: Well, I think as Julie and I have had these conversations we've been talking about even before 2020 happened, that predictability in the world is fading. Predictability in our workplaces is fading, and it impacts career navigation. In general, companies can no longer predict these concrete career paths. And I think last year we just saw this really happen in a much faster way. So I think what's changing is that we don't have the luxury in our organizations to map out all of the what-ifs. We just don't know?
And so we've talked about agility and looking at our careers differently and our poor employees, they know this. I think employees have gotten there, too. They're not expecting, as they used to tell me what I need to do month, one month, two to get there. But they do expect the organization and their manager to be a guide for them to gain more clarity along the way. And that is, I think, where I'm seeing it go. But I also think it's harder to do than building the career ladders of the past that we used to be able to do.
Jon: Right. The predictability is gone. What about you, Julie? What do you see around the how it's changing?
Julie: Well, I think the pandemic has inspired a reevaluation, a reassessment of all of our lives. We've all hit the pause button and stepped back and looked at the bigger picture. And employees are in many cases, discovering that careers are bigger than what they're called, the title or the role or the promotion and compensation. And as I talk with folks about what matters around work, people are looking for ways to make a difference, to be part of something bigger than themselves, to have really profound connections with others in the workplace, to have the opportunity to engage in lifelong learning and to challenge themselves and have a sense of achievement.
And so I really see that folks are expanding the definition of what careers and career development are. They're shifting their focus, and they're expecting more from their work in those other dimensions, which are actually dimensions that managers and employees can affect. They can find ways to make that happen. From my perspective, the changes in terms of mindset and definition of career development are opening up enormous opportunities for managers and employees alike.
Jon: They're almost a Yin and Yang as you both share your views on that. I mean, if you talk about sort of the lack of predictability, the need to embrace uncertainty, right? I don't know what the numbers are, but depending on what you read, there's a certain number of job functions that will exist 10 years from now that we don't even conceptualize today. If we go back even in our last 10 years and think about certain roles and organizations and things, that sense of purpose is something that actually can become the North Star and allow you to better embrace that uncertainty.
Julie: Absolutely. And I think that staff that you're referring to, Jon, it's the Institute for the Future of Work. 85% of the jobs we will be doing in 2030, they don't exist today. So you talk about uncertainty and the need for lifelong learning, which is a dimension of career development. How can we help people future-proof their careers today?
Jon: And adopt a growth mindset around that to be able to cope with it, right? Otherwise, it's just going to be untenable as an employee organization. So, Christine, I know largely your focus has been on employees and individual contributors and developing employees and organizations. What would you say employees really want in this kind of notion of career development and progression today?
Christine: I'm seeing a range. I do think we still have some employees and some organizations that are, whether they're aware of it or not, they're looking for a little more predictability, and they're not finding that. But I find more often than not that employees really want to know their organization cares about them as a whole person. So that means it's not just about my performance and my compensation, important price of admission. But that they're also expecting that the organization will be a place for them to connect with other people, a place for their well being, a place where they can share who they want to be when they grow up, whatever that means to them.
And that's a harder thing I think to do. And then they're also looking for the organization, their manager, to help them answer some of the questions that they're pondering with about what is my purpose, what is my place in this world and what are my what-ifs? But then can their manager and can the organization align opportunities and experiences to what's important to the employee for their longer term vision? And that's I think the piece that Julie has mentioned that that's actually really feasible to do. It's not that employees are asking for something that is just this huge organizational shift. It's just a better conversation and one that's more personal and that's meaningful. And that's ongoing.
Jon: Excellent. And, Julie, you've been focused more through your career on the role of the organization and the manager. So kind of the balance of that, as Christine mentions those things, what are you seeing today in terms of where maybe some of the managers and organizations are falling short relative to some of those changing expectations in the midst, no less, of a power shift where the power is shifting in today's workplace, more to the employee than residing with the organization itself.
Julie: Yeah. And really well framed, John, I think the biggest challenge that managers and organizations as well, I think face is this idea of treating career development as a human resource endeavor. When it's really a human endeavor. Managers, bless their hearts. They are so burdened. And yet even so, they dutifully complete the paperwork, they go through the process, they hit the submit button on an annual basis to offer the data that the organization needs. The problem is that too many managers or leaders then feel like, okay, my work here is done when it comes to career development. And anything but.
I think the statistic is that 82% of employees who engage in career conversations more than once a month report themselves as being highly engaged. And so what we're talking about is conversation really backing on what Christine is saying, conversation as a tool to drive the engagement and the development that people are looking for because it's not a one-and-done sort of situation. I really see career development as a relationship between the employee and the manager and the organization, for that matter, that goes, is not episodic, but is persistent and goes on and on and on.
Jon: Right. So it's really the power of the and that's in there, right? I mean, in a recent meeting that we were all having, I think you two shared an interesting statement that I'll paraphrase here, but it was sort of like the only thing scarier than a manager who's unprepared and unwilling to have a career conversation and a relationship about that career development of the employee is also the employee being unprepared to be able to have that conversation, right? We have to not just open the doors but give the skills and the tools to be able to say it's ultimately up to them to have those conversations and build that relationship. But we can really prepare them.
And I think that brings us to our final question here, as you look broadly in the work that you're doing, what insights or best practices would you be able to share with folks listening today that you say best-in-class organizations are doing these one or two things or taking these one or two first steps towards really meeting the challenge that's at hand.
Christine: And this is coming really from where my organization's been focused with the other organizations, it's that we've made the posters over the last, I don't even know, 10 years that say something to the effect of: Career development: We care. It is manager-led or supported and employee-owned. I've seen books, articles, you own your career. And I think most organizations have landed there.
We've sent the message to employees. Employees want to own it, so we're aligned, but they don't know how if they knew how, we wouldn't have had to make the poster and the campaign. So what I'm seeing best-in-class organizations do right now is make the concerted investment in the employee side of ownership. The manager is an important part. We need to continue to do that and do that better.
But we can't just expect the manager to hold everything. We want the employee to be accountable. Then we need to train the employee. We need to give them the space and the resources and the guidance to figure out who they are, pick an authentic direction, generally speaking, based on strengths and values. And then when they have that conversation, to your point, Jon, with their manager, it's not deer in the headlights, right? And it's not, "I just want your job and I want it now," which is what's happening or, "I don't know," and they're frozen and no action is taken.
So I'm seeing organizations, when they make the investment in the employee directly, not only does it help the manager, right, which is great. Meet your manager halfway. But the employee then is now seeing, "This is an investment in me as a whole person. It's not just for the sake of the organization. This is something that I can take with me anywhere. It's about me," and that gets sort of a double benefit there.
Jon: Excellent. Julie, what are you seeing?
Julie: I think it falls into that same basic category of enabling the ownership that we need to give to employees and innovating in a way, building on the conversation that we just had around career as relationship.
Many of the organizations I'm working with are realizing it doesn't have to be an exclusive relationship between the manager and the employee, and that career development can really be a team sport.
And so I'm working with several organizations right now to help evolve that lonely individual development planning process into a collaborative development planning process from IDP to CDP, where we have employees in the spirit of ownership, figure out who is their career community, who's around them, who can help them sort through some of these questions about purpose and how to and where do I fit in, folks who can be closer to their performance and hold them accountable to the goals that they're setting.
I'm working with organizations who are creating growth gatherings rather than these one-on-one meetings once a year off in a corner to engage that broader community, which right now, given the loneliness, the lack of connection people are feeling, not only does this kind of an approach advance career development powerfully, it creates the kind of connection and community that people are looking for. And so that's one evolving best practice that I think we're going to see a lot more of. And then the other again, it enables the ownership we're talking about.
When the pandemic first hit and many organizations sent folks home to work remotely, there was a little bit of a lull while we were reorienting ourselves and many organizations and educational institutions, they just opened the vault in terms of the learning opportunities and experiences that they made available. What used to be kind of behind a gate for certain levels in the organization, folks have said, forget it. Let's just put it all out there and let people learn. And that kind of transparency has been really welcome to employees.
And so we're really talking about giving them the tools and the resources and the training, letting them own the taking on of that, but giving that to them in a transparent way so that they're able to meet their goals, ideally in the organization that they're in, to feel that sense of investment that makes them want to stick around but be better no matter what they choose to do in terms of where their talents are best used.
Jon: And as I hear both of you talk about that, really, the thing for me is those actions all combined together and those steps and those best practices, it transforms career development from a performance management initiative into a cultural initiative, right? And if it becomes part of the culture, that's where you can actually find that sense of purpose, where you can drive greater engagement, where you can really connect as an employee and as a manager with the organization and kind of bring it all together.
Well, these have been amazing insights.
In addition to you two taking time with us today on this video, you've also co authored a white paper which, as we wrap this up, we'll have a slide at the end of the video that anybody that's viewing this can hit pause and get the URL off of that and any other information on how to contact us for more of this. But I just want to say thank you so much for both of you participating today in this little round table and helping us think differently about this very important topic that means so much in the world today.
