How often do you really think about your career progression? About whether your role and future pathway reflect what’s important to you? Most of us probably don’t do it enough.
But as a people manager, you have the opportunity to inspire your employees to plan a career around their real passions – and plot a path more rewarding than they ever imagined.
So, in this article we look at:
- Why it’s important to invest in care home employee career progression
- 10 Career progression questions to guide your conversations
- How FuturU’s free online learning platform aids employee development.
Why does career development matter to care homes and their staff?
The short answer is: because of its importance to culture. Teamwork, motivation, loyalty, engagement, retention – these are all crucial cultural elements in any business.
But a committed team that feels valued and sticks around isn’t just important to a care home – it’s mission-critical. Multiple studies suggest learning and development underpins it all.
One study by Deloitte found organisations with a ‘strong learning culture’ were 52% more productive and enjoyed a 30-50% boost to their employee retention and engagement rates.
Unsure about how to approach an employee’s career progression planning? We can help.
10 Care home career progression questions to ask your employees
1. Why did you get into the care sector initially?
Many people feel called to the care sector by strong personal values or a conviction to help others. But some may simply value the flexibility of shift work, or find it pays well.
Understanding an individual’s work motivations can help you see what their ‘non-negotiables’ are, which in turn can hint at suitable pathways for their career in care.
2. What do you most enjoy about working here?
Perhaps it’s teamwork, resident interactions, or making a positive impact. Maybe it’s the fast pace, or the autonomy to make decisions. Find out what makes your employee tick on a daily basis.
Imagine learning that your care assistant joined because they ‘just needed a job’, but had since discovered a deep passion for training others. That’s career planning gold.
3. What do you wish you could do less of?
This is a logical follow-up on the previous question, but one that should be approached with care. After all, it isn’t easy telling your line manager that you dislike elements of your role.
But if you can make your employee feel safe to open up, you could both reach some important conclusions about where their future career lies (or doesn’t lie).
4. Do you know what it would take to get promoted?
Let’s assume your employee wants to develop with you over the long-term. They’ll struggle to plan their path without understanding how they could qualify for role changes.
Make sure you have clear and transparent competency criteria for posts and promotions. This lets people see which qualifications, skills and behaviours they should develop.
5. When do you feel most proud of yourself at work?
A question like this can yield surprising results. You might discover that a task someone only gets to perform occasionally in their current role is actually immensely rewarding for them.
A finance officer, for example, who feels most proud when teaching new starters how to use the systems might find a career focused on training – rather than finance – more meaningful.
6. What do you know about how a care home operates?
Some people might need a better understanding of the career possibilities within a care home before they can imagine what their future career path might look like.
Aside from your employee and their role, who helps run your organisation? What are the main care home job roles and responsibilities? Give them an overview to aid their planning.
7. How do you feel about managing people?
For many people, gaining responsibility for a team is something that comes with age and experience. They might excel as a Care Worker, and naturally progress to Care Manager.
But moving up isn’t the only way to develop, so find out how your employee feels about managing others. Their ideal career pathway could well be more horizontal than vertical.
8. Who could we approach about becoming a mentor to you?
Thanks to the mix of personalities, values, skills, backgrounds and experience they bring together, workplaces are great for finding people to look up to and be inspired by.
Is there someone at your care home who inspires your employee? Establishing a mentoring relationship with them could help your employee see and plan their care career pathway.
9. Let’s plot 3 short-term goals for this quarter. What are they?
It’s important that any career planning session assigns actions to each party. As always, they should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound.
For example, someone new to the care home sector might challenge themselves to:
- Join a reputable care industry association
- Connect on LinkedIn with 10 industry peers
- Enrol on a relevant CPD-accredited course.
10. How will we track your progress and review your goals?
One way to record current skills, training aims and career aspirations is to create a personal development plan (PDP), which can be referred to and updated in future careers sessions.
As your employees take steps along their path, their ambitions may change. Discussing personal development at least monthly will ensure their PDP remains relevant.
How FuturU helps care home workers develop
FuturU’s free online healthcare learning platform is the perfect resource for any care home worker looking to upskill and build their career.
Learners benefit from immersive, story-led training that’s engaging, memorable, genuinely useful to their careers – and 100% free.
And as a care home team leader, you get to enjoy:
- Compliance confidence: our courses meet all of the CQC mandatory requirements
- Cost savings: unlock FuturU’s CPD-accredited courses for just £2 per user per month
- Easy admin: assign courses and track learner progress in your personal dashboard.
Ready to see what FuturU can do for you?
