Help Your Employees Carve a Career Out of Their Current Job

Understand career advancement goals of the next generation of workers.

October 21, 2016

ATLANTA – Career expectations are evolving as the way we work changes and the newest generation of employees joins the workforce. In her Thursday education session, Joanne Loce outlined how as a supervisor or manager, you can engage your next-generation employees to deliver more and stay longer by learning how to have productive career discussions and help employees meet their career growth goals.

Loce, president of Loce Consulting, spoke about the importance of developing strategies to help team members move from seeing their c-store employment as simply a job to engaging in a more productive career discussion.

Understanding those career advancement goals requires developing a link between the employee’s dreams, hopes and values, and their desires for money, opportunity and life goals.

Loce outlined the steps to conducting a productive career conversation. In addition to understanding the goals, motivations and aspirations of your employee, you will want to assess the employee’s skills relative to current and future roles.

“You may have employees who are just learning things and need instruction on how to do the technical parts of the job,” said Loce. How can you help them be more effective today? For others, the discussion may focus on what the employee wants to do in his or her career and how to help to get there.

Connect job duties and experiences to help the employee build skills. Be explicit. Loce contends that frequently employees are never told exactly what they are expected to do, what they are expected to learn or what’s in it for them.

“How simple is that to tell your employee: I need you to do this, so you can learn this skill, which will help you to be more successful, to better service our customers, to help you to build your career and to fulfill your aspirations,” she said.

The last step is to set mutually agreed-upon goals, discuss challenges, provide feedback and measure progress.

“While you have lots of tools in your toolbox, finding the right question to ask to change the conversation from job to career can really improve your employee engagement and increase retention, and it can build commitment to your store’s success,” Loce said.

When people start to feel dissatisfied with the job they are currently in, Loce asks them to write on a piece of paper what they love to do. Not what they love to do at work, but what they you love to do. Then she asks them to tell her what in their personal relationships make them feel valued.

On the opposite side of the paper, she asks them to talk about their job. What are they being asked to do and how are they being valued at work? Then, she asks them if there is any overlap. The less likely the overlap, the more likely someone is going to leave the company.

“The greater the overlap, the higher the career satisfaction, the more your employees will love the work they do, and they will want to build a career with you,” Loce said.

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