Set the framework for a good career development dialogue
As a manager, you play an important role in helping your staff become more aware of their career choices and opportunities at the university and beyond. Here, you'll find a variety of resources that can help staff reflect on their working lives and clarify their career goals - and that can also help you as a manager structure career development dialogues with your staff.
- AU HR also offers workshops for management teams that focus on the manager's role in relation to career development and guidance on conducting career development dialogues.
For managers of researchers on fixed-term contracts
Aarhus University employs many researchers on fixed-term contracts as PhDs, postdocs and assistant professors. A fixed-term position can be a stepping stone to several different career paths, and AU as an employer is committed to helping staff in such positions clarify the realistic career opportunities that might exist at AU, another university, or outside academia.
As a manager for academic staff in the early stages of their careers, you have a responsibility to limit the number of short-term, fixed-term contracts an individual staff member is employed under, as well as ensuring that they are offered ongoing guidance and alignment of expectations aimed at helping them clarify their career goals while employed at AU.
Annual career development dialogue
As manager, it’s your responsibility to conduct regular career development dialogues with staff on fixed-term contacts: at least once a year and additionally as necessary (for example, in connection with SDDs). In the event that an academic staff member (excluding PhD students) is appointed to a third fixed-term postdoc contract, their realistic career prospects must be discussed and clarified by that time.
Your role in these dialogues is to contribute to aligning expectations about the staff member’s future career path, based on the following terms:
- The PhD is the conclusion of a PhD programme that qualifies graduates to conduct research. It is not necessarily the beginning of an academic research career.
- A postdoc is a fixed-term position that may lead to an assistant professorship and, in some cases, to a permanent academic position at AU.
- An assistant professorship/researcher position, which provides important teaching qualifications, is generally considered the first step in research career at the university.
Career development dialogues
Career development dialogues and SDDs are not the same. However, there are some shared themes:
- SDDs focus on the staff member's professional development, well-being, and performance, while also exploring how their role and skills might be developed to contribute to AU's broader organisational objectives. In other words: The university's need for thriving, talented employees is the focus of the SDD.
- On the other hand, the career development dialogue centres on employee's personal and professional ambitions and aspirations and should minimise focus on organisational objectives.
Lay the groundwork for a productive career development dialogue
- Before the dialogue: it’s a good idea to check your unit’s finances and budget. Is there room in the budget to offer fixed-term staff a permanent position? Is there funding for additional courses or training if that comes up? It’s important to make sure you’re up-to-date on how much financial headroom in terms of what career development options you’re in a position to offer before the dialogue.
- The form of the dialogue: Consider what form of dialogue would be most appropriate for the individual staff member – highly structured or more free? The ‘classic dialogue’ is highly structured, similar to an SDD. The ‘visual dialogue’ is more loosely structured; the dialogue is organised around themes and the staff member’s reflections on them.
- After the dialogue: The staff member should write a summary of the SDD that details any agreements reached during the dialogue. It’s a good idea to offer to help if necessary or even conclude the dialogue by writing the summary together.
The classic career development dialogue
In this approach to conducting career development dialogues, the dialogue is divided into three phases:
- A preparation phase : the staff member prepares for the interview by filling out a questionnaire that contains with questions about success, feedback, motivation and career development.
- The dialogue: You and the staff member review and discuss the staff member’s responses and evaluate them together.
- The reflection phase: the staff member considers your feedback and reflects on the dialogue.
The guide to the classic career development dialogue contains a guide to all three phases for the manager and the questionnaire for the staff member.
‘Visual’ career development dialogue
This approach to the dialogue is also divided into the same three phase , but is less tightly structured.
- Before the dialogue: the staff member is invited to reflect on a variety of topics, including the future, current status, challenges, resources and options.
- During the dialogue: You ask questions about these topics and help the staff member summarise the discussion.
- Concluding the dialogue: The staff member summarises by creating a mindmap of the most important reflections.
Help your staff member take the next steps after the dialogue
As a manager, you can help the staff member move forward in different ways, for example by
- referring them to the resources and services AU offers
- helping them enhance their qualifications by taking on new tasks or more responsibility
- offering to activate your own network.
