Encouraging employees to take a hard look at their skills, motivators, and aspirations challenges both employees and managers to align employees’ career plans to the organization’s future needs and strategic goals.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Article Author: <\/div>\n

Dave Denaro, Vice President, Keystone Associates<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tCompany leaders are embracing how important employee engagement is to business success in today’s quick-changing and competitive environment for two reasons. <\/p>\n

\n\tOne, work has evolved to become more challenging and less scripted, requiring a much more self-motivated workforce. Two, these days most employees expect workplaces to continually engage their minds and build their skills through compelling projects and stretch assignments. If such employees don’t see that happening, they leave—especially if they are in the early or mid-stages of their career. According to Deloitte’s report<\/a>, corporate learning trends, training, and development opportunities are the most popular benefits an employer can offer today’s employees.<\/p>\n

\n\tTherefore, HR professionals are in a unique position to promote a culture of engagement, one that supports employees’ desires by taking a proactive stance toward their growth and development. By the nature of their work, HR professionals play a more “whole company” role and can facilitate top managers’ ability to hold fruitful discussions with their direct reports and encourage employees to take more ownership of their careers by talking more openly about their aspirations and career plans.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Goal Is Alignment<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSupporting employees who take ownership of their career paths has multiple benefits. Encouraging employees to take a hard look at their skills, motivators, and aspirations challenges both employees and managers to align<\/em> employees’ career plans to the organization’s future needs and strategic goals. Where are their best skills most valued? What do they need to learn\/develop to move to the next role in their plan? Are there other parts of the organization where they can transfer their talents to make a bigger impact and experience more satisfaction? Seeking answers to these questions can lead to increased employee engagement and increased productivity—the classic win-win scenario—and HR can lead the way.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo enhance employee engagement in your company, initiate career conversations using the right mindset <\/strong>and the SPUR<\/strong>framework.<\/p>\n

\n\tMindset<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt’s important to prepare for the conversation believing that: <\/p>\n

\n\t1.<\/strong> Employees can<\/em> learn just about anything, but really want<\/em> to learn and get better at things they desire to learn and get better at.<\/p>\n

\n\t2.<\/strong> It’s the employees’ responsibility to plan their lives and their careers; HR simply is coaching them to be able to do what they want to do so that it is in alignment with future workforce needs.<\/p>\n

\n\tUncovering areas where the employee wants to improve supports the alignment previously noted. To coach the employee, HR professionals must play the three roles of a coach in the conversation:<\/p>\n