Lessons learnt from the successful career change program for Holden workers. Story by Amalia Chilianis

Work and life are inextricably linked, and the pandemic forced the blurring of the lines between work and people’s personal life. Many employers have taken positive steps to help support their employees with the challenges brought on by lockdowns, working from home, restrictions in the workplace and newly imposed demands on personal life. From years of experience in HR Leadership roles combined with the research from my book, here’s my recommended approach for helping employees make their work and life work better together.

In the world of work we are often focused on the day to day of getting the job done, however sometimes we need to help employees steer their career in a new direction. This might be to ensure they have a long-term future with the company, to adapt to a change in business strategy and/or to better align with their own personal aspirations or find them a better job fit. Here are some practical things you can do to help your employees to steer their career in a new direction.

Getting your team to work well together is not only critical for performance and achieving or exceeding your goals and targets, but also makes work so much more enjoyable. A little bit like parenting, just when we think we have it all figured out something unexpected happens to throw things off balance or into a complete spin. There are some practical ways to help your team work better together and continue to do so even when faced with challenges and change.

Productivity, innovation and financial performance have all been shown to be connected to employee engagement. One of the key ways you can boost engagement is to help your employees gain greater satisfaction with their career. While as HR professionals or leaders, you can’t make someone be more engaged, you can definitely improve and influence the environment, conditions and factors that will enable increased career satisfaction for others.

It’s a big responsibility and commitment when you’re hiring someone new and a decision rarely taken lightly. There’s excitement and anticipation about the problems they’ll solve, the extra help they’ll provide or the growth they can help you achieve. As a small business owner optimism, whether it comes naturally or has been learnt, has to be part of how you operate. So when you first see the signs that maybe you have made a poor hiring decision, you hope that it will just take a little time for them to learn the ropes and settle in.