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In a time of increasing competition and economic pressures, employers are faced with difficult recruitment and retention challenges. Learning Plans are a tool used by many organizations to link business needs with individual career development interests, thus potentially engaging and retaining employees for longer periods. Learning plans benefit both employers and employees, as they build a sense of ownership and motivation through communication and negotiation. Self-directed learning allows employees to take responsibility for their own learning and career development, as it involves a level of personal investment. Employers reap the benefits through supporting and investing in their employees, which leads to an increase in skill development, motivation, and productivity. How did Learning Plans come about?

"When the number of employees Matt Kaplan managed at a lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson mushroomed from six to 30, the school called in a management coach to make sure he was prepared. What he learned surprised him-his employees thought he was distant and didn't trust their work. "The biggest challenge for me was realizing I couldn't do everything myself," he says. "I had to learn to trust my team, which was a gradual process." Experts say many bosses are similarly clueless about their appearance to employees. Here are five signals you may be one of them."

Great workers are not born, they're self-made. I will spot them a mile away, even once they're brand new, fresh out of school. They exhibit traits and work habits that distinguish them from the average. they start a journey with four very distinct stages; they're "great employees" at every stage, however add very totally different value to my team with each progression

"A new report from office-space company Regus PLC says 64% of U.S. employees will be working the week between Christmas and New Year's, with 56% actually coming into the office. But is anyone really productive? According to the survey of more than 12,000 employees worldwide, just 39% of U.S. respondents say they expect workers to actually do much work."

For many companies, tough economic times inevitably end up pushing the work environment to the back burner. Benefits are slashed, innovative programs are dropped, employees get shut out of big decisions. Employees are lucky to have a job, many bosses figure. Anything extra is unaffordable.

What are the advantages of guiding workers to collect stories directed at organizational career management? Expressing accomplishments in story form is a huge advantage because a compelling, engaging story is memorable to the manager making a promotion decision, while people who aren't telling stories may be forgotten. The decision-maker gets to know and trust employees through their stories, which may also help establish an emotional connection that inspires investment in their success. (And, by the way, the same storytelling principles that work for other employees also work for your own career progression.)

My article in The Journal Report on Leadership-"Why Companies Aren't Getting the Employees They Need"-generated an avalanche of reader response. In that piece I argued that companies too often put the blame on our education system for their inability to find the skilled workers they need. Instead, I wrote, companies "need to drop the idea of finding perfect candidates and look for people who could do the job with a bit of training and practice."

"I'm passionate about "career management," a phrase I use to talk about taking personal responsibility for our individual careers. Long gone are the days when a company had loyalty towards employees, specifically keeping them on-board for decades and providing a healthy pension after retirement. How many companies are offering a lifetime job with nice benefits after retirement? Not many. "

"Faced with a dearth of skilled labor, more companies are taking employee education into their own hands. Unemployment figures are high, but finding workers with the right skills for the job-especially for highly specialized roles such as power plant technicians or laboratory chemists-remains a big challenge, many firms say. In a survey from Lloyd's, the British insurance concern, U.S. executives considered lack of skilled workers one of the greatest risks their companies faced in 2012, second only to loss of customers."

"When should a small-business owner promote an employee?"

Employees reapplying to previous job is acceptable by job industry. But before going back to previous workplace, find out whether it is a good decision or not.

"In an effort to school senior executives in technology, social media and the latest workplace trends, many businesses are pairing upper management with younger employees in a practice known as reverse mentoring. The trend is taking off at a range of companies, from tech to advertising. "

"In 2012, creativity and adaptability will be key to landing and keeping a job for many workers, as staff levels remain lean and employees are expected to respond to a wide variety of demands, experts say."

The Best Places to Work to Work in the Federal Government® rankings are the most comprehensive and authoritative rating and analysis of employee satisfaction and commitment in the federal government. The 2011 rankings are the sixth edition of this ongoing series, following the 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 versions.

View & apply for Full Stack Engineer Internal UI Team job in New York, New York, USA at OnDeck Capital. What excites us at OnDeck? Technology. Innovation. Small businesses. We believe in our employees and

"Think back for a moment, if you will, to your first full-time job. Odds are it was a lowly staff position with a humble title, lots of drudgery and little encouragement or recognition from anybody. In order to take even one step up, you may have had to wait out someone who had been there for ages and showed no sign of budging. But you probably stuck it out, at least for a few years, and paid your dues. After all, who ever said work was supposed to be fun?"

"Working adults sometimes assume that career development means going to classes or undertaking developmental roles outside of their jobs. They may even believe that development is only for those interested in promoting up the management ranks or for those on the "fast track." However, it is critical to both the individual and to the organization that employees continue to grow in knowledge and skills regardless of rank, tenure, or career movement."

"Since the shocks of corporate re-engineering and leveraged buyouts in the late 1980s, the watchword to employees has been take ownership of your own future. Instead of efforts to build bench strength, which had characterized talent development efforts since the 1950s, most organizations shortened talent planning time horizons and reduced learning and development investment, resorting instead to hiring talent on a just-in-time basis. "

"Heather Logrippo says her employees didn't seem too enthusiastic at first when she handed out construction paper and crayons and told them to find a quiet place for 30 minutes."