An employee is like the asset of a company. When it comes to his career growth and development, then it's not just the employer who has to put his effort. But in reality, it is required that both employees and employers join their forces to create a conducive environment that helps both parties to achieve their individual goals.

Understand Career Development from Employee and Employer Perspective 

To make the career development concept easier, I will put it this way. Every person has some career goals to target. He has to follow his career path. So, whatever he does to stay right on track on his career path helps him move to a higher level and get a promotion.

Now from the perspective of an employer, they need to give every employee a chance to grow. When there is no chance of a high-level job and career opportunities, an employee would prefer to look around and start searching for new jobs.

To reduce employee turnover and increase his productivity level, an employer spends money on the training and development of every employee. The primary goal is to improve his employee skills that in-turn improves his performance. Through this investment, a company can meet its own goals and objectives. 

Career Development Definition

• According to Schuler, "It is an activity to identify the individual needs, abilities and goals and the organization's job demands and job rewards and then through well-designed programs of career development matching abilities with demands and rewards."
• According to Wikipedia, "Career development is the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure, and transitions to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future."
• According to Mansfield, "Career development is a process in which personnel experience, concept and publicly observable aspect of career interact to precipitate each successive stage of occupational statuses".
• According to Middlemist, Hill, and Greer, "Career development is a process of planning the series of possible jobs one may hold in an organization over time and development strategies designed to provide necessary job skills as the opportunities arise."

Why is Career Development Important for Employees?

The career path of an employee begins from his childhood when he watches a TV show about the doctor and starts saying, "I will be a doctor." When he grows up, he takes steps further toward his career building. Choosing a medical field in high-school, attempting an entry test, and then joining a medical college are all parts of the ongoing journey. Once he becomes a doctor, he doesn't end up there. He keeps learning new skills and doing specialization to do better in the field of health care.

It was just an example of the ongoing process of career development and the growth of an employee. Now the question is, how important is career development. The simple answer is very.

• If an employee doesn't invest his time, energy, and effort in his career, then he feels like he is doing nothing good with his life.
•  Repeating the same job over and over again won't bring any motivation and self-improvement. 
• When an employee is working in a company that is not interested in employee career development and training, then the employee loses his job satisfaction- which in turn affects his productivity level. Sometimes, an employee hates his job that much that he thinks of making a career change in mid-life.
• Learning new skills and getting training is essential for an employee, as it is how he will move in the next phase of his career and grow.
• In simple words, career development is essential for an employee as it helps him stay on track on his career path. Targeting his career goal becomes simpler when he is satisfied with his job, and it helps him go somewhere in his professional life.

Why is Career Development Important for Employers?

The responsibility of an HR department doesn't just end with the hiring and managing people. A significant part of their role is to take all necessary actions through which employees can move up to higher up and get more job satisfaction. 

• Giving employees a chance of training and development is a way of keeping employees motivated. It's normal to get bored from the job when it has a lot of repetitive tasks, so HR managers come and handle this situation through proven strategies such as job rotation, job enlargement, or job enrichment.
• An HR manager sends employees to some training sessions, webinars, seminars, conferences, and other things that help him learn new things and skills. The Skill development council in Pakistan joins hands with companies and offers their employees some new skill development courses. 
• Investment in employee training and development is vital for companies as it is a way of staying competitive. When they send their employees for training, they are investing their money on the people who will do better. 
• Keeping up with the Latest Technology is required to stay ahead of the competition. To meet the changing demands of existing employee jobs, an employer must have to send employees for some technical courses. 
• An employer can increase the job satisfaction of their employee whenever they give them a chance to learn something new and enroll in skill development courses. 
• Career development is the best tool for employees to manage their human resources requirements properly. Companies are getting serious about development programs as it helps them address human resource problems and give them what they are always looking for.

Wrap up

Employers who don't want to lose their employees, always invest in career development programs. They can increase their employee productivity and performance while ensuring the continuous supply of qualified and talented workers in the company. On the other hand, an employee can achieve his career goals by putting effort into career development.