career conversations.pdf

Being the Best
AConversationGuidefor
Supervisors and Managers
Helping
Employees
WithTheir
Career Planning

UnderstandingYour Role In Achieving Success 4
l How You Contribute To Your Employees’ Career Planning 4
What’s In It ForYou? 5
The Career Planning Model ForThe BC Public Service 6
l The Importance Of Career Planning 6
l Understanding Our Model (Plan - Learn - Experience) 7
Getting Prepared 8
l Tips For Success 9
HowTo Facilitate Career Planning Discussions 10
l In The ‘Planning’ Stage 10
Tips For Success 11
Suggested Questions 12
l In The ‘Learning’ Stage 13
Tips For Success 13
l In The ‘Experience’ Stage 14
Tips For Success 15
GeneralTips For Success 16
l Tips For Being A Good Listener 16
l 10 Great Career Coaching Tips For Supervisors 17
Additional Resources 18
l Online Resources 18
l Suggested Reading 19
Conversation QuestionsTear-out Inside Back Cover
A ConversationGuide
FOR SUPERVISORS & MANAGERS
Helping Employees
With Their
Career Planning

UnderstandingYourRole
IN ACHIEVING SUCCESS
HowYou ContributeToYour Employees’Career Planning
As a supervisory manager, you play an important role in supporting your employees as they work through their career
planning. This does not mean that you have to be a career counsellor. Remember, it’s always the employee’s
responsibility to manage their own career.
Your role involves providing support and guidance where possible; and you can do so in many different ways, depending
on where your employee is at in their career planning process. It’s also important to remember that the Professional Values
of the BC Public Service are essential elements of a career path for all employees. Our shared values of Courage, Curiosity,
Teamwork, Accountability, Service and Passion are the defined behaviours of what we expect ourselves and each other to
demonstrate and apply, no matter what our career path is in the BC Public Service.
You can show your support by:
Being a Facilitator
n Assist your employee to assess their skills, interests, motivations and areas for improvements by referring to items noted
in their EPDP.
n Suggest tools to assist them in the process of self-assessment, including referring them to the assessment resources
located in the Career Planning Workbook.
Being a Source of Information and Referrals
n Share knowledge that is relevant to your employee’s career aspirations - perhaps even sharing your own story about your
career in the public service.
n Refer your employee to others within the public service, such as subject matter experts in a chosen field.
4

Being a Guide
n Give them input on how to work through obstacles that they may encounter.
n Clarify expectations about what you can do and what your employee must do for themselves.
Being a Motivator
n Provide objective positive feedback on your employee’s strengths.
n Recognize your employee’s achievements and celebrate successes.
Remember, you are not a career counsellor. It’s okay not to know what to do in all cases. If you need support, you can contact
your HR consultant. Quite often, all you need to do is listen. In fact, many employees simply need a sounding board or
someone who can point them in the right direction if they have a specific question or need more information.
What's In It For You
Research has shown that supporting employees in better managing their careers is a key factor in their level of engage-
ment. High levels of engagement are widely recognized as a key element in boosting overall productivity. Needless to say,
helping people to be more productive is the goal of all supervisors.
Helping your employees with their career planning helps you in many ways:
Clarity: Improving clarity on your role in career related discussions with your employees makes these meetings easier
to facilitate and much less stressful for you and your employees.
Time Saving: Having a structured process in place, including knowing which questions to ask your employees, saves you
much preparation time for career-related discussions with your employees.
Better Results: Having people that are more engaged increases the likelihood of success for your work unit (and for you).
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TheCareerPlanningModel
FORTHE BC PUBLIC SERVICE
The Importance of Career Planning in the BC Public Service
Helping our employees to grow and develop professionally greatly contributes to our goal of ‘Being the Best’. We believe
that career development is important. That’s why it’s such a fundamental element of our Corporate HR Plan, also
known as Being the Best 3.0, which states that the BC Public Service wants “to put more focus on requiring
every employee to have a strong career path so the BC Public Service can identify and develop
those with broad interests and potential.”
With the public service projected to shrink in size
due to a large number of people poised to retire in
less than a decade, we need to find ways to be a more
nimble organization. This will likely mean that
more employees will be working across
traditional ministry boundaries. We want
to help our employees in making that shift.
That’s why career development is
so important.

7
Understanding Our Model
Our career planning model is rooted in the funda-
mental principle that career planning is
a very personal journey and, as such, it must be
driven by the employee. We believe that this
exploration is guided by three key
elements:
Plan: The employee begins to assess and
understand their interests, strengths and
weaknesses and charts a plan to advance
their career.
Learn: The employee begins to research
and discover what learning opportunities
exist to build and develop the skills they’ll
need to manage their career.
Experience:With your support, the employee examines
ways to develop their potential, including taking advantage of the opportunities that exist within
the BC Public Service.
To gain further insight on our model, it would be helpful for you to review the Career Planning Workbook
that’s been developed for all employees within the BC Public Service.

GettingPrepared
FOR SUCCESS
Having a career planning discussion is simply that: a discussion. Some may see this as a significant opportunity to
support an employee. Others might feel a little anxious about having a discussion related to another person’s future because
they think that as a supervisor, they might need to get personally involved. Remember, however, that this “journey”
belongs to the employee. Your role is to simply to provide support, coaching and guidance when you can.
Here is an overview of this three-stage process and your chief objective in each stage:
The employee begins to assess and understand their interests, strengths and weaknesses and charts a plan to advance their
career. Your objective: provide constructive feedback.
The employee begins to research and discover what learning opportunities exist to build and develop the skills they’ll need
to manage their career. Your objective: examine the employee’s learning needs. Determine what’s possible. Are their needs
appropriate to their goals and the work unit’s resources and requirements?
With your support, the employee examines ways to develop their potential, including taking advantage of the opportunities
that exist within the BC Public Service. Your objective: discuss potential opportunities and provide information and resources
to support your employee’s career planning.
lan
P
earn
L
xperience
E
8

9
Tips for Success
To help you prepare for a career planning discussion, it’s important to remember a few simple tips:
1. Become familiar with the career planning process
n Review the Career Planning Workbook, located on @Your Service, to be aware of career paths and available
resources for employees.
2. Review your employee’s EPDP
n Our e.Performance tool has a section devoted to “career goals”. Review what your employee has noted in this
section to give you a sense as to what you might want to discuss with them.
3. Review the career information supplied by your employee
n One of the nice things about the public service’s Career Planning Workbook is that it allows the employee
to document their skills, abilities, experiences and career aspirations in one place.
n The workbook encourages employees to share this information with their supervisor. Let the employee
know that you would welcome the opportunity to review this information prior to
your meeting with them.
4. Think about your own journey
n Take the time to jot down some of the key experiences that you’ve gained
in your career.
n This will help you to empathize with your employee, as well as give
you some good reminders about the kinds of advice you can share.

HowToFacilitate
CAREER PLANNING DISCUSSIONS
Facilitating a Discussion with an Employee in the‘Planning’Stage
It’s important to note that for most employees, the planning stage will be the most important part of their career planning
journey. As you will see in the Career Planning Workbook, there are five Steps that the employee will need to take within
this stage; they are:
Step 1
Determining their strengths
Step 2
Getting input from you, as their supervisor
Step 3
Networking with others to find additional information
Step 4
Thinking about potential career paths
Step 5
Assembling their plan and entering it into their EPDP
Given the importance of this stage, it will likely take your employee a significant amount of time to complete. As such, it’s
important to make the employee aware that you’ll be willing to chat with them after any of these steps. Remember, while
you are not a career counsellor, these types of conversations are part of your role as a supervisor and shouldn’t significantly
add to your workload. Quite often, the employee will simply want to “bounce something off you” or get your perspective on
something that they’ve encountered along the way.
10

As stated previously, one of the key steps in the planning stage is to have the employee get input from you. Within their
workbook, they’re provided with a list of sample questions that they can ask in their meeting(s) with you. These questions are:
n What would you say are my key strengths?
n What skills should I build on?
n Which items from my previous EPDPs should I consider in examining my potential career paths?
n Are there any developmental opportunities that you think would be helpful for me?
n What would you suggest as a potential career path?
n Who else should I speak to that could help me in this process?
To make this discussion flow more smoothly, it would be helpful for you to give some thought to your answers
to these questions, prior to your meeting with your employee.
Tips for Success
n Allow the employee the freedom to explore options; make them feel comfortable at the start of the meeting by having
them express their goals for the discussion.
n Don’t judge. Remember, different people will have different career aspirations; let them explore theirs.
n Give suggestions and recommendations and, if possible, link them with any available resources to support their
identified career goals.
n Our e.Performance tool provides a place to document your employee’s short and long term career goals, activities
and timelines. Ensure that these items are captured there.
n Make sure you follow-up on the goals and activities identified - this will show that you “walk the talk” in supporting
your employees’ career planning. This models our corporate value of ‘accountability’ and helps build trust in your
relationship with your employees.
11

Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Planning Stage
1. Do you have time to chat about your career plan? If the answer is no, respect that response
but schedule time to have a discussion.
2. What are you short-term career goals?
3. Think about what you have to accomplish over the next year to reach your goal, what do you feel you need
from me to help support you through this process?
4. What are your long-term career goals?
5. How do these long term career goals fit in with your career plan?
6. How can I help you further?
7. What projects or tasks have you done that you’re proud of?
8. Tell me about a time you’ve felt really good about a day at work? What happened that day?
9. What career path have you identified? What specific job role within this path are you most interested in
pursuing at this time?
10. What are some of the knowledge, skills and behavioural based successes that you think are most important
in achieving your work goals?
12

Facilitating a Discussion with an Employee in the ‘Learning’ Stage
One of the best ways for your employees to advance their career is to build on their existing knowledge and skills and/or to
develop new skill-sets. Doing so will help them feel more confident and better prepared to deal with a fast changing work-
place—which can only help make your life easier as their supervisor/manager!
As you will see in the Career Planning Workbook, there are three steps that the employee will need to take in the learning
stage of their career planning process; they are: 1. Identify one or two areas they’d most like to develop. 2. Identify activi-
ties that address the need. 3. Set realistic timelines. Once again, in this stage, employees are encouraged to have a
conversation with you to get some input.
Tips for Success
n Refer the employee to the many learning options and resources that exist within the BC Public Service, as identified
in the Career Planning Workbook.
n Ensure that any identified skills, related learning activities and realistic timelines are incorporated into the
employee’s EPDP.
n Remind the employee to be flexible and to modify the plan when needed, remembering to encourage them to keep
sight of their goals.
n Review their growth and accomplishments and above all recognize their successes.
Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Learning Stage:
1. Which one or two areas do you think you’d like to/need to develop? Why these?
2. What type of development do you feel you need: Knowledge-based, skills-based, or experience-based?
3. Which organizational learning resources have you researched? Which ones seem most interesting to you? Why?
4. Have you given some thought to assessing your learning style?
5. What can I do to support your learning needs?
6. What have been some of the key things you learned since we last had a discussion?
7. What are your timelines for completion? Do you feel they are realistic?
13

Facilitating a Discussion with an Employee in the‘Experience’Stage
By this point in their journey, your employee will have assessed their particular skills, abilities
and strengths, as well as determined the skill areas that they
need to develop in order to advance their career. They will
have identified potential learning opportunities to
address these developmental needs and have
acted on them.
Given all this work, the first thing that needs
to happen in this particular conversation is to
congratulate them on these accomplish-
ments. They have taken control of their
career and now they’re looking for oppor-
tunities to apply their new skills in the
“real-world” so that they can decide
which career path within the public
service will be most rewarding.
The diagram to the right identifies many
different ways in which an employee can
develop their potential within the BC
Public Service. A brief description of each
can be found in the Career Planning
Workbook.
Taking advantage of such experiential opportunities
will allow the employee to be ready for new
opportunities when they develop.
14

15
Tips for Success
n Ensure relevant resources and information to support development are provided to the employee as they are available.
n Link the employee to available resources.
n Encourage employees to be flexible in relation to their plan but to keep their end goal in mind; remind them that
progress sometimes requires taking one step back in order to take two steps forward.
n Check for alignment with strategic business objectives.
n Give constructive feedback and discuss / explore alternatives.
n Keep an active interest in their progress.
n Recognize their achievements.
Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Experience Stage
1. Can you tell me which self-development activities that you feel would be most beneficial to obtaining
your career goals?
2. What can I do to help you get started?
3. Can you think of how the two of us might create a new experience or project that would fulfill
some of the same values and interests for you?
4. How might we find other things you could do to help you fulfill the interests, and successful
behavioural attributes we just talked about?
5. What other activities would you would like to be engaged in that would align with your interests?
6. What projects, committees, responsibilities might there be that would allow you to pursue
your passions?
7. Are there any new skills, abilities or areas of knowledge you will need in this
project/activity that you have selected?

GeneralTips
FOR SUCCESS
Tips for Being a Good Listener
CreateThe Setting For Effective Listening
n Show your employee that you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say by limiting or avoiding potential
distractions (e.g., mute your phone, close your office door, etc.).
ShowYou’re ListeningThroughYour Body Language
n Most people will notice your “body language” to determine whether or not you’re truly listening. Effective body language
includes:
l Making eye contact
l Nodding your head occasionally as a sign that your following their train of thought
l Varying your facial expression during the conversation
l Leaning slightly toward the person to indicate your interest and concentration
l Smiling appropriately
Use Effective“Verbal”Listening Skills
n You can also show you’re listening by what you say; for instance:
l Ask for clarification (“what did you mean a moment ago when you said…”)
l Summarize what the employee has said (“so what I’ve heard you say is…” and then repeat the employee’s
key points or messages)
n Suspend evaluation and tendency to jump to problem-solving
l Many supervisory managers are “task-oriented” which is usually very good because it’s how things gets accomplished.
l However, most employees going through a career planning process are usually intent on finding their own
solutions–they just need you to listen as they talk through their plans
Check out other supervisory tips and resources provided by the BC Public Service.
16

Ten Great Career Coaching Tips for Supervisors
1. Actively seek out opportunities to have a career discussion with your employees.
2. Use non-judgemental language when giving feedback.
3. Encourage your employees to take control of their career planning.
4. Recognize accomplishments with a particular focus on behaviours that demonstrate our corporate values.
5. Identify options for your employee’s career growth and development and help them develop specific objectives
and plans to meet their goals.
6. Give action-oriented feedback–i.e., suggest specific actions they can take to improve their performance
toward achieving their career goals.
7. Support, motivate and encourage your employee to get involved in various activities
that will support their growth and development.
8. Practice active listening; show you are listening through your body language
and reflect back verbally what your employee has told you to show them
that you understand.
9. Share your own career experiences.
10. Provide information about the organization and the career paths
available within the BC Public Service–help them understand
where we are heading and our strategic priorities.
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Additional Resources
Online Resources
n Career Developer-BCCAT This career planning site has resources for self awareness and assessment development
and covers virtually all topics in the field of career and educational planning.
n Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development This website provides useful information
and resources on the BC labour market and career planning projections and tools.
n Achieve BC – Job Profiles This site provides job profile listing by type of work.
n Work Infonet Provides information and resources to help employees make career decisions.
n Provincial Government Jobs
n Service BC - Knowledge Centre Library resources and articles on change and resiliency, business and social networking,
and career planning.
n Education and Training Resources
n Making Career Sense of Labour Market Information The Canadian Career Development Foundation offers this online
guide to researching labour market information for making career decisions.
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Suggested Reading
n Chapman, Elwood N. (2003): New Supervisor: Stepping up with confidence. Boston, Mass: Thomson
Course Technology.
n Charney, Cy (2006): Leader’s toolkit: hundreds of tips and techniques for developing the skills you need.
New York: AMACON.
n Denny, Richard (2005): Communicate to Win. London UK:-Kogani, Page.
n George, Kim (2006): Coaching into greatness: 4 steps to success in business and life. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley
&Sons.
n Lombardo, Michel M (1996): For your improvement: a development and coaching guide for learners, supervisors,
manager, mentors, and feedback givers. Minneapolis, Minn: Lominger.
n Maggio, Rosalie (2005): Art of talking to anyone: Essential people skills for success in any situation. New York:
McGraw Hill.
n Marlen Westwood Training (1997): Career Coaching Skills (DVD). Mississauga, Ontario: Merlin.
n Nigro, Nicholas (2003): Everything coaching and mentoring book! How to increase productivity, foster talent, and
encourage success. Avan, Mass: Adams Media Corporation.
n Owen-Stewart Performance Resource In (2000): When the coach is you: Skills for helping others learn what you
already know. Port Reny, Ontario: Owen-Stewart Performance Resources.

Being the Best
Jumpstart
YourCareer!
LearnMore
https://employee.gov.bc.ca/
click the learning and development tab on the left
LearningServices

Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Planning Stage
1. Do you have time to chat about your Career Plan? If the answer is no, respect that response but schedule
time to have a discussion.
2. What are you short-term career goals?
3. Think about what you have to accomplish over the next year to reach your goal, what do you feel you
need from me to help support you through this process?
4. What are your long-term career goals?
5. How do these long term career goals fit in with your Career Plan?
6. How can I help you further?
7. What projects or tasks have you done that you’re proud of?
8. Tell me about a time you’ve felt really good about a day at work? What happened that day?
9. What Career Path have you identified? What specific job role within this path are you most interested
in pursuing at this time?
10.What are some of the knowledge, skills and behavioural based successes that you think are most
important in achieving your work goals?
Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Learning Stage
1. Which one or two areas do you think you’d like to/need to develop? Why these?
2. What type of development do you feel you need: Knowledge-based, skills-based, or experience-based?
3. Which organizational learning resources have you researched? Which ones seem most interesting
to you? Why?
4. Have you given some thought to assessing your learning style?
5. What can I do to support your learning needs?
6. What have been some of the key things you learned since we last had a discussion?
7. What are your timelines for completion? Do you feel they are realistic?
A ConversationGuide
FOR SUPERVISORS & MANAGERS
Being the Best

Suggested questions to help you facilitate conversations in the Experience Stage
1. Can you tell me which self-development activities that you feel would be most beneficial
to obtaining your career goals?
2. What can I do to help you get started?
3. Can you think of how the two of us might create a new experience or project that would fulfill some
of the same values and interests for you?
4. How might we find other things you could do to help you fulfil the interests, and successful behavioural
attributes we just talked about?
5. What other activities would you would like to be engaged in that would align with your interests?
6. What projects, committees, responsibilities might there be that would allow you to pursue
your passions?
7. Are there any new skills, abilities or areas of knowledge you will need in this project/activity
that you have selected?
Being the Best

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