When considering recruiting and retaining talent, it’s worth noting that employees should feel their own responsibility for their professional development. In this article, the author outlines a 3-step plan:
- Set your career goal – If you like what you do, do you want to work at a more senior level? If you don’t like what you are doing, use your imagination superpower to determine your dream jobs. Talk to your family and friends to understand your strengths and talk to a trusted industry connection to understand which roles will match your strengths.
- Analyze the gaps – How can you get there? What skills will be required from your future job? What skills have you already got? What are the gaps? This step may sound difficult, but there is a short path – check out your current & future jobs on seek.com and write down the required skills.
- Bridge the gaps – Prioritize the skill gaps based on importance, urgency, and logical sequence. Now you may ask, is there a learning model that I can follow to upskill myself? The answer is yes! Let me tell you a bit of the 70-20-10 learning framework.
- 70% of your new skills can be learned from doing. You can ask for new tasks at work, apply for a secondment or participate in professional volunteering. These activities can help you accumulate the required experience for your future.
- 20% of your new skills can be learned from others. Coaching, mentoring, and attending industry events are widely available options to you.
- 10% of your new skills can be learned from formal learning. Courses and certifications, if chosen wisely, will give you a decent return on investment.
I particularly like the graphic that demonstrates how to ‘bridge the gaps.’ It helps illustrate that while people tend to think of Training courses first, that only represents 10% of skill development. Obviously, ‘learning from doing’ represents the bulk of skills development. But, I appreciate that they cite 20% comes from ‘learning from others.’ We’re increasingly hearing from our clients that peer groups is one of the ways that they are investing in the development of their key employees.