Chapter 15

So with reading this week’s chapter I had one big question on my mind, and it was how do you get large companies to buy into the idea of developing a career development program. When I was reading that you should estimate about 300-400,000 dollars in start-up costs, I knew this would be a tough idea to sell (Brown, 2012). In these economic times companies are more concerned with how they can save lots of money and are not extremely interested in investing money into a career development program. I know from reading that these programs could save these companies lots of money but trying to convey this message to companies I think could be really tough. When trying to go in and present this information to corporations you would need to be prepared with specific numbers and how it can specifically help them, and how much money it can help them save. Because as much as we want to believe that companies care more about their employees than their profits I don’t think this is a true fact. So, you would really need to show the monetary value that these programs can have for these companies.

            I thought the idea about mentors was really interesting, I think it is very true that you do need to stick with same sex mentoring pairs so no issues arise with anyone. Unfortunately in the society we live in many assumptions can be made. Also, I think we have not really made enough progress in breaking down gender roles for them to not be an issue with heterogeneous pairings. Both the male and female could fall into their stereotypical roles and this could deter any progress being made by the pairing. I think that it was also really a good idea to take mentors that are volunteers I never really thought about the fact that someone who is forced to be a mentor may do a terrible job. They could be really uninterested in providing knowledge to someone lower to them, or it could put them in a situation that is really comfortable. Not everybody likes to be a mentor and I think that if you force someone into that position it could be really detrimental for all parties involved. So like it said in the book the process of selecting mentors is really crucial in having a successful program.

            Lastly, I think a pre-program development survey could really help with making sure that a successful program is created. You want to make sure that you are listening to what your employees want so then they will be more likely to use the services that you create. If a company were to just go in blindly they would probably create a program that would not be successful and it would be a loss for them monetarily and a loss for employees in resources. I think having retirement counseling is really beneficial for employees and it helps them come up with successful plan for retiring and it helps them to adjust to the idea of retirement. I just really think that providing employees with career development within a company is a really big benefit for both the company and the workers.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed.).        New York: Pearson Education Inc