• LinkedIn Clean
  • Twitter Clean
  • Google+ Clean

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • HOME

  • ABOUT

  • OUR SOLUTIONS

  • CONSULTING

  • INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES

  • BLOG

  • CONTACT

  • More

    Take Charge of Your Professional Development

    March 22, 2016

    |

    Ruth Kustoff, Principal

     

    Even as organizations recognize the need to create a culture of learning and provide continuous professional development to staff, it remains tantamount to your professional success to be part of your own development and take an active role in it.

     

    The importance for organizations to plan and deliver customized and individualized professional development was identified as a top 10 trend by Deloitte in its Global Human Capital Trends 2014 Survey Findings  and in a Harvard Business Review article where the authors stress the value of making learning a core value to support employees to develop their strengths and weaknesses.

     

    If companies don’t meet the development needs of employees, retention is lower and overall performance and employee engagement is down.  

     

    While some organizations have recognized this, others may not be following through on doing what they know they should. Some of the reasons organizational learning falls short is because of seemingly  more important priorities, a focus on immediate challenges with a “putting out fires” approach - rather than looking ahead -  and finally not having the resources or knowledge to build a learning culture and professional development program.

     

    Regardless of where your company is on the continuum of professional development, you can easily plan a full curriculum of learning for yourself that identifies goals that may align with your job and/or be directed toward a personal career path for future opportunities.  

     

    You can be the master of your own professional development and possibly partner with your place of work. We are no longer in an environment where we need to be told what we need to learn or how to learn it. Both personally and professionally, you can be self-directed and focused on what you need to know and identify where you can get it. This is easier to do now than ever before.

     

    There are countless avenues for finding free or low cost learning options.

     

    Many colleges and universities, and some public libraries offer courses and classes online.  And, there are many prominent MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) offered by the elite Ivy League universities, including Harvard and Stamford, who partner with other well-known universities to offer online courses taught by university professors.  Most MOOC classes are between four and twelve weeks long and are free. In addition to university MOOCs, there are other companies that offer online courses at reasonable costs. These include Lynda.com, Alison and Udemy-- each one focusing on different subject areas.

     

    There are also online business libraries such as BizLibrary and Bluebottlebiz that provide books and articles and other resources. You can also find videos as micro learning opportunities.

     

    As organizations begin to realize the importance of continuous professional development, both as a bottom line savings and as a way to retain employees, you can take charge now of your learning to ensure you remain on the cutting edge of your expertise for professional growth and career advancement.   

     

    Please comment how you've created your professional development plan, I'd love to hear about it. If your organization needs support in creating a learning culture and developing a professional developmetn program Knowledge Advantage can help, email Ruth Kustoff..  

     

    Please reload

    Featured Posts

    Gender Bias in School

    February 18, 2015

    The True Cost of Onboarding

    January 13, 2015

    The Value of a Personal Story

    February 23, 2015

    1/4
    Please reload

    Recent Posts

    Summer's Over - Now it's Time to Get Learning!

    August 1, 2018

    How Learning Supports Employee Engagement

    July 19, 2018

    Do I REALLY need to do a Learning Needs Assessment?

    April 16, 2018

    The Rise of Data Analytics Increases the Need for Critical Thinking Skills

    March 27, 2018

    Assessing the Chief Learning Officer Role

    March 21, 2018

    Please reload

    Search By Tags

    Bloom's Taxonomy

    CLO

    Clinton

    Gen Y

    K-12 learning

    Learning

    MOOCs

    Millennials

    advantage of knowledge

    agile

    benefit of professional development

    best practices

    bite size learning

    blended learning

    boot camps

    coaching

    collaboration

    communication

    continuous learning

    corporate storytelling case study

    creativity

    critical thinking skills

    cultural fit

    data science

    elearning

    elearning development

    eleraning

    employee benefits

    employee engagement

    employee learning needs

    equality in learning

    experiential learning

    free elearning

    gender bias

    gun training

    information sharing

    innovation

    internship

    job focus

    just-in-time learning

    knowledge

    knowledge management

    knowledge sharing

    leadership development

    leadership; storytelling

    learning

    learning and development

    learning assessment

    learning delivery

    learning habits

    learning on-the-job

    learning organization

    learning readiness

    learning roadmap

    learning while doing

    life balance

    low job performance

    managers' role

    millennial

    millennials

    mindfulness

    needs assessment

    new hire

    new hires

    new job

    onboarding

    onboarding process

    online learning

    open mind

    organization readiness

    organizational goals

    organizational learning

    partnership

    performance reivew

    performance success

    performance support

    personal learning

    phases of elearning

    planning elearning

    planning learning

    practice

    presence

    professional development

    recruiting

    scheduling elearning project

    scrum

    self-directed learning

    senior leader development

    shorter meetings

    strategic learning

    strategic planning

    stretch opportunity

    supporting new hires

    synchronous learning

    take charge

    team management

    technology

    telecommuting

    training

    wisdom

    work

    workforce age

    Please reload

    © 2014 Knowledge Advantage. Site by W.A.D.V

    • HOME

    • ABOUT

    • OUR SOLUTIONS

    • CONSULTING

    • INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES

    • BLOG

    • CONTACT

    • More

      • LinkedIn Clean
      • Twitter Clean
      • Google+ Clean

         Knowledge Advantage Services

       

      • Learning Needs Assessment

      • Strategic Planning

      • Learning Roadmap

      • Consulting Services

      • Knowledge Coach

      • eLearning Planning and Development 

      Knowledge Advantage is nimble and responsive to your needs.
       

      With years of experience from working with many clients in diverse industries, our projects fall within a wide spectrum in the learning space. Each project is unique to the specific needs of our clients, their business and their employees.

       

      We work with clients to deliver creative, strategic learning solutions that align to organizational goals.