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Industrial Research Innovate Magazine
By: Virginia Burton - Director - Learning and Assessment IPENZ
Professional development over money
Thursday, 29 April 2004
What makes engineering and science graduates prefer one company over another, and what encourages professionals to stay with a company for the long-haul? Surprisingly it is not always about the money.
The company that recruits and retains the best people is what can be called a “learning organisation”. Learning Organisations encourage employees to learn from their experiences, place a strong emphasis on communication and sharing, and promote diversity, complexity, and above all else – ongoing professional development.
In my role as Director - Learning and Assessment at The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) I get to see from the inside the culture of companies. I have seen first hand what makes one organisation retain staff, and another often having to re-advertise the same position - a daunting task in a climate where we have a shortage of skilled engineers and scientists.
Obviously my area of expertise is the engineering profession –
but I know the science community would agree with me – that engineering
and science based companies need to retain human and intellectual capital
for industry success and economic growth.
I think employers need to remember that our new generations of
graduates looking at our professions are just as much interviewing us
as we are interviewing them, so our CV’s need to be in order.
Nowadays graduates have invested a great deal of time and money into
their tertiary education, and so they are looking for a future employer
that will deliver training and professional development to support their
increasingly diverse and complex careers.
When looking at joining a company graduates are also concerned with a
cultural fit – will they be enriched working in a particular team?
It is increasingly useful to offer students scholarships and holiday jobs
to give them first-hand insight into the organisation.
This is also a generation that is interested in the management style of the organisation. They want managers that are good at coaching, mentoring and communicating. Orgainsations are well aware that the success of their business depends on the reliability and motivation of their staff, so the management style has to change from authoritarian to empowering.
And then of course graduates are driven by salary – but international research has proven that money isn’t everything. In fact professional development is often far more of a “carrot” to employing the best graduates.
Organisations may find that establishing a successful graduate development
programme is more complex than they expected. Successful mentoring, for
example, may not come naturally, and mentors may need training to understand
their own behaviours and
learn to break down the defenses that block learning. But the returns
for the organisation can be enormous, not only in terms of developing
the competencies of their graduates, but also in terms of the overall
“culture” of the organisation. Becoming more open to learning
from experiences is likely to lead to improved organisational performance.
For engineers there is the IPENZ Endorsed Employer policy which in effect,
is designed to identify organisations that are committed to organisational
learning. Graduates, supported by their mentors, are encouraged to recognize
gaps in their competency development, and reflect on their performance;
and they are given every opportunity to acquire the competencies expected
of engineering professionals, using the IPENZ
quality marks as an external benchmark.
Learning organisations are obviously only one part of a complex equation of retaining good staff, but a strong graduate training and mentoring ethos can make the difference to the company as a whole and should be encouraged.
For
more information see IPENZ’s Endorsed Employer Programme
ENDS
For further information contact:
Virginia Burton - Director - Learning and Assessment
Phone: 04 474 8936
Email vburton@ipenz.org.nz
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