Grow Your Career was one of a four-part professional development series. Other courses in the series included Resume Writing, Interviewing, and Business Etiquette. The courses could be taken in any order.
During a company-wide needs analysis, it was determined that many employees expressed a desire for job mobility (promotions, lateral movement, job shadowing, etc.). However, many employees felt insecure about achieving their career goals due to a number of factors: ESL challenges, an older population unfamiliar with technology as it pertains to career advancement (i.e., how to use writing software to build a resume), and tenured employees who hadn't, for example, participated in an interview in a number of years. The professional development series was created to help build employees confidence, reduce employee disengagement by encouraging them to explore new roles within the company, and also to invite hiring managers to place a higher value on internal candidates.
The team received much success from the other courses in professional development series, however I observed that it lacked information about how social media can aid in one's career development. From personal experience, I knew the importance of building a positive online presence for networking and career growth and hypothesized that this information could be of value to our employees. I pitched my idea to my supervisor and was given the greenlight to begin research and analysis.
