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Goodbye Job Security...Hello Career Resiliency
Begin by discarding job security as a goal and recycle it into the more pragmatic, and mutually desirable, target of a career-resilient workforce. Both those wishing to remain in long-term employment, and employers wanting to keep adaptable, versatile people, benefit from such a workforce. Many changes have occurred in the workplace, and the pace continues. However, the steps you should be taking to look out for your own interests are the same as they have always been. The widely published gloomy employment prospects reflect the big picture. You might call it a "Big Macro Attack." Your personal employment prospects however, reflect a "Micro" situation. To confuse the two is to cloud your outlook and conceal opportunities. If there is any job security, it exists in how employable you are as well as your ability to manage yourself. Your expectations, plans and career will flourish, or fail, more because of your responses to economic events than from the events themselves. Yes, they do sidetrack personal plans and progress. Similarly, however, a job you cherish can become available even during a deep recession. Career-resilient people look for opportunities and make preparations for them. Those who are unprepared when opportunities arise often discover that satisfying work is much harder to find. Present conditions simply highlight, in fact, what we should always have been doing; that is, giving regular attention to our career development. Employers who offer work cannot guarantee it into the future. Employees who own their careers cannot be "absentee landlords" and neglect personal career management. If there is any job security, it exists in how employable you are as well as your ability to manage yourself. Being employable relates to skills, education, and experience. Managing oneself relates to the ability to manage the transition from one work status to another. What you control or influence most is yourself, resources at your disposal, and decisions for personal growth and for improving your circumstances. Few employers who bury their heads in the sand escape the kick in the rear from today's technologically driven world and its revolutionary workplace. It's not easy to leave a comfort zone of established work practices and do business differently. Now, however, is an ideal time to build, or re-build, an organization. Call it reengineering, restructuring or whatever, but you can now genuinely reorganize to make real gains. The C.E.O. of 3M Corporation, "Desi" DeSimone, who grew up in Montreal, declares, "It's tough to fire a lot of people and then ask the survivors to be innovative." His predecessor said, "Hire good people... let them run with an idea and give them the room they need. If you put fences around people, you get sheep." A career-resilient workforce will press for organizational success for their own personal reasons, but everyone will benefit as a result. With a career-resilient workforce, the basis of employee relations is honesty, not loyalty. Today there is a much more honest and open rejection of the "we've always done it this way" excuses. With a career- resilient workforce the basis of employee relations is honesty, not loyalty. You encourage your people to enhance their skills, to work independently with you and their co-workers, and to willingly contribute to achieving improved results. You could call this motivational climate control. Career-resilient people look for opportunities and make preparations for them. Employers Note: Instead of having employees be career dependent on their organization, companies support them in the pursuit of career resiliency. You will both find excellence! Help them understand that staying employable by keeping competitively skilled is their responsibility. However, do not abandon them to the idea. Promote and support their efforts to grow and reinforce the right to be free agents. After all, if you want only the best people working for you, then expect your competitors to covet them. CAREER RESILIENCY STRATEGIES FOR EMPLOYEES * Conduct annual/quarterly personal reviews of your present status; document the pluses and minuses. * Create turn-up file reminders of "to do" tasks to assess your status and next career development steps. * Learn the "early warning" signs that reveal a potential threat to your job or career. * Undergo reliable assessments of your skills and interests for appropriate career choices. * Review, each quarter, educational and training programs that may help your career. * Join a career development group, such as The Five O'Clock Club(r), to help organize personal career development. FOR EMPLOYERS * Let employees know which skills & traits are key to succeeding in your various positions. * Regularly inform employees how the organization is doing and where it is going. * Seek accurate employee feedback on how well they feel the organization is doing. * Build a learning resources network of people and places and help employees connect to it. * Conduct career awareness workshops to show employees how jobs are becoming more diverse. * Promote employee career resiliency by providing membership in a career development club. Email Fred
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This site is for working women everywhere, to help improve their
success, pay, and self-confidence.
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Most people require little honest thought to agree that job security is a myth. Recent economic events painfully reminded many that no single employer, including "Big Business" and "Big Government," can ignore outside influences. Nevertheless, employers and employees alike can contribute to future workplace stability by directing their energies to where they can most effectively influence results for themselves.