Managing Smart—Career guidance needed, the power of volunteer programs and more

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Managing Smart

Become the manager you always wanted.

April 10, 2024

An exciting evolution for our readers: Next month will be our final issue of Managing Smart. After that, as people managers and business leaders, you'll get to explore the challenges, innovations, and evolutions of work, workers, and workplaces through our award-winning weekly newsletter, All Things Work. Stay tuned for your final Managing Smart newsletter in May to get a taste of the best that SHRM has to offer as we work together to create a better world through better workplaces!

Young Employees Not Getting Career Guidance

Employees are craving career advice, but they don't know where to turn. While many workers seek mentoring opportunities and guidance from their managers, they say it's inadequate or nonexistent.

In response to a 2023 survey from Workplace Intelligence, a research agency, and INTOO, a career development and outplacement firm, 39 percent of U.S.-based employees said they've received poor or no career guidance from their manager. Instead, such guidance comes through multiple other sources, including friends and family, general internet searches and social media. Among Generation Z survey respondents, 47 percent said they have received better career advice from ChatGPT than their manager.

But while ChatGPT and similar tools can quickly gather industry data and career path information, career counselors caution that the information "is not guaranteed to be up-to-date or accurate."

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Volunteer Programs Boost Job Satisfaction

Employer-sponsored volunteer programs can build goodwill within local communities and boost a company's image. They can also help retain employees by teaching new skills and boosting their confidence, according to a 2023 global survey and report conducted by Edge Research for investment company Ares Management.

In the survey of more than 5,000 full-time workers, researchers found that nearly 80 percent of employees who volunteer through work-sponsored programs are satisfied with their jobs, compared to 55 percent who don't volunteer that way. However, developing a workplace volunteer program requires HR departments and managers to work together to ensure they have the time, resources and usually some financing, all of which may be scarce at small companies.

Gone are the days when managers were solely taskmasters or productivity enhancers. Today, managers play a significant role in mental health support, having become even more influential in that area than health care professionals such as therapists and doctors, and mirroring the influence of spouses and partners, according to research by UKG.

This finding, while compelling, is not entirely surprising, given both the significant amount of time employees spend with their managers, and managers' control over crucial resources, time off, recognition, career advancement and job security.

According to new research, almost half of Americans are bored at work. Of the 2,000 working U.S. adults who participated in a survey, 46 percent said they get bored at least three days of the work week. Boredom at work, also called "bored-out," has significant implications for workplaces, from lower productivity to diminished quality of work and higher turnover.

"Ultimately, if employees are acting bored or disengaged, they may end up having bigger issues down the line and eventually quitting because they don't feel valued or engaged," says Paaras Parker, CHRO at Paycor, a human capital management firm.

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