Aligning Individual Interests & Abilities With Corporate Needs

Stark & Associates’ Career Development Assessment (CDA) helps the organization’s leadership team, the target person’s immediate supervisor, and the target person him- or herself to pinpoint:

  • Strengths;
  • Areas for improvement;
  • Specific recommendations to increase the target person’s interpersonal, leadership, and/or on-the-job effectiveness;
  • The kinds of jobs within the organization (and careers in general) for which the target person is best-suited; and
  • How best to get from where the target person is now, to where he or she wants and has the potential to be (i.e., the target person’s ideal “destination” position).

In essence, the CDA process is designed to empower:

  • The target person, to take charge of his or her own professional/career development; and
  • Relevant associates, to know “what to do” to facilitate the target person’s career growth and development

There are three steps to the CDA process:

Step 1. Information-Gathering

This step occurs at Stark & Associates’ offices, in Blue Ash. During a 3-5 hour session, the target person’s skills and abilities, personality and leadership characteristics, work-related values, educational and work experiences, and professional interests, are assessed and discussed. The findings are documented in a written report, which highlights the areas mentioned above. (The report typically becomes part of a special executive team file, but may be shared with other employees on a need-to-know basis.)

Step 2. One-on-One Feedback

This session also occurs at Stark & Associates’ offices. During a 3-hour session, Dr. Stark provides the target person with the exact same report that the executive team gets, reviews every test and inventory the target person took, and explains the findings-and the implications of the findings-for the individual. In addition, the report identifies specific careers for which the target person is best-suited, and provides dozens of pages of information about these careers (such as job descriptions, education and/or licensing requirements, expected level of competition for the available jobs, compensation, and how to access additional information). Throughout this session, any questions or concerns the target person has can be addressed confidentially, one-on-one.

Step 3. Professional Development Planning

Next, the target person, Dr. Stark, and pertinent company associates (for example, a representative of the executive team, a representative from Human Resources, and/or the target person’s immediate supervisor), will meet at the company for the Professional Development Planning (PDP) Session. The PDP session is designed to maximize the target person’s chances of realizing his/her full potential. Specifically, those in attendance will provide direction, guidance, and insight from three developmental perspectives:

  1. Personal Effectiveness. What books should the target person read, and/or what workshops, seminars, or training sessions should the target person attend, to increase the target person’s personal effectiveness at work?
  2. Educational. What college or university courses, majors, and/or degrees might the target person pursue to increase his/her chances of getting to where he/she needs or wants to be?
  3. Experiential Learning. What special projects or assignments can the target person’s supervisor offer, to give the target person more of the kinds of knowledge, skills, abilities, and/or experiences that he/she needs to improve and/or advance?

Result

Both the individual and the organization have a clear idea of the target person’s ideal job, and a “career roadmap” on how to get there.