Expert highlights importance of career conversations with employees
Employers have a huge role to play in supporting employees through career development.
And they can fulfill that by starting with career conversations with workers, says Meghan Lavallee, chair, board of directors, at CERIC, which advances education, research and advocacy in career counselling and development.
“Many employees are not only looking for the importance of the paycheck, they're looking to add value to their workplaces of work. They're looking to develop and continue to grow and learn throughout their workspaces,” she says in talking with Canadian HR Reporter.
“And employers can be really active participants in that.”
Overall, 71% of workers would like to update their skills more often, and 80% believe employers should invest more to provide upskilling and reskilling opportunities for workers, according to a previous TalentLMS report.
Skills developed outside of work
The career development process takes place even outside of the workplace, says Lavallee.
“Students may take a lot of different skills away from their educational experiences, aside from just the academic side of things. They could also be working or volunteering, and within those contexts that people hold a lot of different roles, we're learning,” she says.
“So, for employers, sometimes those skills that they're looking for have been developed outside of an employment setting. And sometimes that can be very valuable to the experience or what someone brings to a particular role.”
Aside from their ability to do the job, workers also bring other skills that may be helpful in the workplace, she says.
“We're hired for a particular job, but we bring a whole bunch of other skills along with us that aren't necessarily used day-to-day in our jobs. So through career conversations, through being really engaged with your employee networks, you may discover some of those hidden skills that are already present in your workplace.
“And by accessing some of those, we might also, in turn, really engage our employees in some really important ways that will both help your business case and really allow people to find value in the work that they do every day.”
This concept of life-long learning – with a focus on “skills for success” – is vital in ensuring that Canada will have enough skilled workers to fill job openings in the future, according to one expert.
Innovative approaches to career development
Early next year, CERIC will hold Cannexus 25, where experts will share their thoughts and knowledge about innovative approaches in career and workforce development.
“We cover a lot of really cutting-edge topics,” says Lavallee about the event, happening on Jan. 27-29, 2025, both in person and virtually.
“Some of the major topics are recruiting the best talent, connecting with some of those networks so that they can innovate their own practices that will hopefully help to recruit and retain high-caliber employees, addressing some of those real or perceived skills gaps that folks are noticing” among others, she says.
People from education, HR, and many different sectors can take a lot away from that type of experiences, says Lavallee, “because it really is about that constellation of roles that people hold. And I know that's really important, particularly in today's job market and hiring market.”
Upskilling is critical in the age of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), according to one expert.
