Shortlist: 7 ways to support your people’s career agility

Organisations should support career transition by helping their people to develop and grow, writes Lynne Hardman, CEO of Working Transitions.

In the modern workplace, characterised by rapid tech change, the job for life has been replaced by a need for career agility. Younger workers are focused on developing the skills to move on or up regardless of who they work for.

When organisations support career transition, it is beneficial for both parties. Investing in the development of our people helps to retain them and ensures we have the skills we need in an ever-changing marketplace.

Here are some practical steps employers can take to support career transition:

1. Encourage your people to keep their CV and LinkedIn profiles updated by refreshing them annually with new skills and achievements. This can be done as part of annual reviews and can be very motivational as well as raising mutual awareness of skills gaps.

2. Provide practical learning about the impact of organisational change and personal transition. Help people to understand the stages that they may go through so that they can recognise and deal with them can have a positive impact on how they cope.

3. Ensure that line managers have the coaching skills to have effective conversations during periods of transition so that employees feel that their concerns are heard and that they can gain the support they need. Great coaching skills are the foundation of good leadership so investing in this can pay dividends across the whole business in the longer term.

4. Ensure that the transition experienced by new starters and returners, perhaps after sickness or maternity leave, is supported with a structured plan to help them manage this important transition into the workplace

5. Encourage people to focus on their health and wellbeing. Provide tools and resources that enable positive actions that help people to feel in control.

6. Increase communication quantity and frequency, communicate known facts frequently and discourage speculation

7. Help employees to make informed judgments and choices by providing opportunities to explore these in an independent and confidential environment. Consider workshops and providing coaching or mentoring support which is also focused on enabling a more balanced perspective and identifying coping strategies to help deal with the impact of any uncertainty.