Stimuleren van eigen regie op loopbaan en ontwikkeling

The current labor market requires that people take responsibility for their own professional development. At the same time, this requires a stimulating work environment that supports self directed employability. This article, which is an adaptation of the recently published knowledge document ‘Eigen Regie op Loopbaan en Ontwikkeling’ of the Sociaal Economische Raad (SER), focuses on how self-directed employability can be stimulated. In this article we discuss the building blocks of self-directed employability that provide insight into how employees can influence their own professional development. Based on these building blocks, we describe concrete actions to stimulate self-directed employability within organizations and which roles HR professionals should take in facilitating this behavior. First, this concerns offering direction, i.e. emphasize of how labor market development relates to changes in the organization, how specific tasks and roles will change, in what time frame this will occur, and the direct consequences for employees. Second, it concerns a safe environment in which employees and managers trust each other and in which learning and development are attractive (support). Finally, it is about organizing the work in such a way that people can actually make their own choices and there is room for learning from and during work.