WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR EMPLOYEE CAREER DEVELOPMENT?
MRINetwork™ survey highlights need for more frequent communication

Philadelphia – Most employees get few opportunities to discuss career development with their bosses – at least that’s how they see it. According to a recent survey conducted by MRINetwork, the world’s largest search and recruitment organization, 69 percent of the respondents reported meeting with their bosses only once a year to discuss their careers. Of the 2,100 people who participated in the survey, only 15 percent had meetings every three months and 16 percent every six months.

“Businesses used to partner with employees to carry out career planning and development,” said Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork. “But in this regard, times have changed. Increasingly both businesses and employees have come to view career development primarily as the employee's responsibility.”

Jalbert observes, however, that with increasing pressure on candidate supply, this trend will begin to go the other way again. “Career development is a significant factor in employee retention,” he said. “Top employees need to know where they are headed and that they have the support of management to get there. Clearly, a once-a-year cursory discussion of career plans during the course of a review is not sufficient.”
Ideally, according to Jalbert, ongoing input and feedback are needed to ensure both maximum performance and employee satisfaction. “Some companies now adopt a more informal approach to the review process in which they sit down with employees as frequently as every month to help them develop and grow and to catch small problems before they become big problems.”

Jalbert notes that this approach draws a distinction between performance reviews and salary reviews, which he believes should occur separately on an annual basis. “Employees should always be on top of their own career development plans,” said Jalbert. “If they feel that they are not getting good feedback, they need to take the initiative and seek out opportunities to meet with their bosses. Often the pressures of work simply cause these occasions to be postponed, but they need to be a priority.”

About MRINetwork:
Management Recruiters International, Inc, branded as MRINetwork™ (www.mrinetwork.com), is a subsidiary of CDI (NYSE:CDI), a global provider of engineering & information technology outsourcing solutions and professional staffing (www.cdicorp.com). MRINetwork has nearly 1,000 offices in over 35 countries.

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