It Takes a Village - Career Development Coaching and Mentoring Programs on the Rise

This post about career development programs is courtesy of Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp.com.

Career development programs are on the rise, and many companies train
from within.

When it comes to career
development, many companies have an “it takes a village” mindset.
According to a just-released study conducted by the Institute for
Corporate Productivity (i4cp), 60% of the 382 polled companies have a
career development program in place and 41% of those use in-house
coaches and/or mentors to drive development. The study also suggests
that people who want coaching and mentoring are better off working in
the rich and diverse “villages” of large corporations.

“We asked about career development outside of skill-based training and
found that this kind of thing is a community effort,” said Jay Jamrog,
Senior Vice President of Research at i4cp. “By far the most common type
of development programs are mentoring and coaching. People aren’t
relying on trainers. They’re relying on one another, tapping into each
other’s experience and expertise, especially in larger corporations.”

Present Use of Coaching and Mentoring Programs

The study findings showed that use of coaching/mentoring programs rises
along with company size. For example, 48% of companies with fewer than
500 employees use coaches and mentors. That rises to 58% for those firms
with 3,000 to 5,000 employees, and it peaks at 65% for companies with
10,000 or more employees.

Planned Use of Coaching and Mentoring Programs

The study also found that career development programs are an
up-and-coming trend. Of the companies that presently do not have such
programs, four-fifths plan to implement one within the next two years.

“There are a couple of possible reasons for this,” said Jamrog. “First,
a lot of companies are complaining about talent and leadership
shortages, and these programs are one of the best ways of addressing
those shortages. Second, younger employees attach a great amount of
value to these kinds of programs. If they don’t feel they’re getting
anywhere or learning anything, they’ll just leave. So these are
retention as well as development programs.”

Implementation

Among other findings, the study showed that more than half of companies
(53%) select career development candidates by manager referral, although
a number did say they use a combination of manager referral and employee
self-selection. Also, the majority of companies (76%) integrate their
programs with talent management goals, and 81% say career development is
integrated with business objectives.

“That just shows good sense,” said Jamrog. “Development is as important
for the organization as a whole as it is for the careers of
individuals.”

The Career Development Practitioner Consensus Survey was conducted by
i4cp, in conjunction with HR.com, in June 2007.

Building on the 35-year history of its predecessor (the Human Resource
Institute), the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp, inc.) improves corporate productivity through research, community, tools and technology focused on the management of human capital.

Additionally, i4cp identifies and analyzes future trends expected to influence workforce productivity and provides members with tools and technology to execute leading-edge strategies and “next practices” on these issues and trends.

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