Career Coaching Cards Explained: Where does career development link to our business strategy? 

How your corporate objectives will shape your HR efforts

Suit: Backed by the organisation

This card is easier than you may think. In short, it should lead to you answering two questions: what is your main company goal? and how can HR help you get there?

Because depending on the answer, the workstreams you deploy could be completely different. A company focused on diversifying into a new market would require new or different skills to be developed, whilst an organisation aiming to grow will need to recruit on a larger scale. Your business vision will define your talent strategy, and your talent strategy will turn your business vision into reality. 

This is why you’ll need to be closely aligned with your leadership team to get clarity. Your next HR priority, or as we like to call it your big exam question, will come directly from your board. If those two functions do not work together, you may end up pushing people towards career opportunities that will not exist in the future. Talk about a motivation killer for your talent pool. 

So ask yourself: where is business going and who have we got on our bench to get us there? Do you have your next C-suite ready to step into key roles? Do you need to accelerate some people or invest in a development programme? Are you clear on your succession planning objectives? 

And don’t forget that working towards a goal is all well and good, but if you can’t assess the success of your efforts, your strategy will be much harder to sell. Make sure you benchmark your progress by aligning your KPIs to your strategy.

Have a look at our Ultimate checklist of HR metrics to see if you are missing a trick. 

Stay tuned for the next blog on our 52 cards deck on career development.