Everyone wants to excel at their job. Employees require career development programs that can offer constructive supervision and new challenges. Smart business owners who wish to correct historical vocational imbalances hire qualified employees and still maintain their competitive edge.
To do this, business owners introduce career development programs for all employees, including those living with mental disabilities. These programs cut across major facets of work life. Here are 5 career development programs to introduce in your company today.
Career Development Programs
1. Career planning
Employees living with mental disabilities are no different from employees who aren’t. They have career aspirations and goals. The company should make it its duty to find out what those goals are.
Evaluate employees’ interests, talents, and skills. Find out what their career expectations are concerning the requirements of the available jobs.
If an employee’s career goals seem unattainable concerning the currently available roles in the company, the employee should be provided with constructive feedback. The employee should use this to determine achievable goals in the company and the path to achieving them.
Employers should not assume that an employee’s mental disability is a barrier to job performance. Rather, all employees should be given the same opportunities. Career lattice opportunities could be beneficial to all employees. Employers should explore this possibility.
A career lattice opportunity lets employees progress laterally within a company to gain new skills and find their best fit. Periodic job rotations help employees understand the entire operations of the company to discover their best fit. Job enrichment lets employees take on new responsibilities and assignments. It is a good career development program for employees.
Related: Mentorship For Employees: 3 Benefits To Your Business
2. Team building career development program
Team building is a career development program that involves allowing employees to solve problems and find solutions together. This helps them build strong, healthy working relationships with each other.
Employers should take care that employees living with mental disabilities take on leadership positions and have access to the perks that come with it. This includes off-site projects, planning sessions, travel allowances, etc.
Employers should not assume that employees living with mental disabilities would be unable to take on extra responsibility.
Learn more: 5-Step Career Development Model
3. Networking career development program
Individuals living with mental disabilities enjoy social and recreational activities as much as anyone else. Employers should include employees living with mental disabilities in all company gatherings; formal or informal.
This allows everyone to network and come up with strategic business solutions. Important business discussions take place at office gatherings, it would be a shame to leave anyone out.
Employers must make arrangements to accommodate all employees including those living with mental disabilities. This can be achieved by using bold fonts on company briefs, speech-to-text facilities, etc.
4. Performance appraisals
Companies have different kinds of performance appraisal processes. Some businesses rely on formal, written documentation, while others rely on less formal, frequently oral, methods.
Employers must treat mentally disabled employees in the same manner as all other employees. If a position has been restructured to accommodate a person’s condition, evaluate the employee exclusively on the duties that he or she is expected to complete, but hold employees with mental disabilities to the same performance standards as other employees.
Before the final write-up, supervisors should discuss the evaluation with the employee. It is critical to have a career development talk after the discussion about job performance in the current position.
5. Training
Employees living with mental disabilities should have access to training opportunities. Management and leadership training, as well as specific skill training, should be among the alternatives offered.
Employers should ensure that these training are held in accessible facilities. Materials should be offered in big print for visually impaired people, translators should be available for hearing-impaired people, and other reasonable adjustments should be made.
In conclusion
Employers stand a lot to gain when they implement career development programs for the professional growth of their employees. Even more so when they deliberately take into account employees living with mental disabilities. Employers should level the playing field without offering special favors.
Brothers & Associates can assist employers with the provision of career development programs for employees living with mental disabilities. Call or email us to find out how we can help